THE HEROS OF MOUNT OLYMPUS: The Son Of Neptune
by percyjackson600
Summary: "I don't own Percy Jackson. Please review."
1. Chapter 1

THE SON OF NEPTUNE

Annabeth and Piper had been training in the arena.

"No Piper, you must hold you dagger like this.'' Annabeth walked near Piper and corrected her arm then said "Try again,"

After a few battle, Piper said "Let's call a break shall we?" "OK. I'm tired." Annabeth smiled for a while but it faded quickly.

"Still thinking about Percy, huh?" Piper asked. Annabeth examined her dagger "Yeah.''

Then Rachel walked by. "Any news from Percy?" Annabeth asked. "Well .."

Suddenly the sun shined brighter than ever. Below their feet there were a few sheets of papers with a note said

"Dear campers of Camp Half-Blood,

I know you missed Percy very much. So I give you a sneak peak of the beginning of Percy's adventures when he is missing

I can't show you all because is against the ancient rules, sorry.

Good luck!

From the coolest god ever, Apollo''

Annabeth looked shocked when she held on to the sheets of papers, like this was her life "Rachel, call a council meeting, now!"

The council members were silent. Then Clarisse said "Well, what you waiting for? Let's start!"

"I will read.'' said Annabeth.

The snake-haired ladies were starting to annoy Percy.

"Snake-haired?" Travis asked. "Medusa" Miranda answered. "No, Medusa's sisters.'' Annabeth corrected.

They should have died three days ago when he dropped a crate of bowling balls on them at the Napa Bargain Mart. They should have died two days ago when he ran over them with a police car in Martinez. They definitely should have died this morning when he cut off their heads in Tilden Park.

"Ouch!"Some campers said.

No matter how many times Percy killed them and watched them crumble to powder, they just kept re-forming like large evil dust bunnies. He couldn't even seem to outrun them.

He reached the top of the hill and caught his breath. How long since he'd last killed them? Maybe two hours. They never seemed to stay dead longer than that.

"The monsters are reforming quickly" Jason added. "Very quickly"

The past few days, he'd hardly slept. He'd eaten whatever he could scrounge vending machine Gummi Bears, stale bagels, even a Jack in the Crack burrito, which was a new personal low. His clothes were torn, burned, and splattered with monster slime.

"Eww'' Leo said but he received a few death glares. "Said the one who's covered in motor oil." Nico said.

He'd only survived this long because the two snake-haired ladies gorgons, they called themselves couldn't seem to kill him either. Their claws didn't cut his skin. Their teeth broke whenever they tried to bite him. But Percy couldn't keep going much longer. Soon he'd collapse from exhaustion, and then as hard as he was to kill, he was pretty sure the gorgons would find a way.

Where to run?

He scanned his surroundings. Under different circumstances, he might've enjoyed the view. To his left, golden hills rolled inland, dotted with lakes, woods, and a few herds of cows. To his right, the flatlands of Berkeley and Oakland marched west a vast checkerboard of neighborhoods, with several million people who probably did not want their morning interrupted by two monsters and a filthy demigod.

Farther west, San Francisco Bay glittered under a silvery haze. Past that, a wall of fog had swallowed most of San Francisco, leaving just the tops of skyscrapers and the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge.

"Percy at San Francisco .. Chiron .." Annabeth asked. "No, Annabeth calm down. We will see later." Chiron said.

A vague sadness weighed on Percy's chest. Something told him he'd been to San Francisco before. The city had some connection to Annabeth the only person he could remember from his past. His memory of her was frustratingly dim. The wolf had promised he would see her again and regain his memory if he succeeded in his journey.

Therewas a little hope in Annabeth eyes.

Should he try to cross the bay?

It was tempting. He could feel the power of the ocean just over the horizon. Water always revived him. Salt water was the best. He'd discovered that two days ago when he had strangled a sea monster in the Carquinez Strait. If he could reach the bay, he might be able to make a last stand. Maybe he could even drown the gorgons. But the shore was at least two miles away. He'd have to cross an entire city.

He hesitated for another reason. The wolf Lupa had taught him to sharpen his senses to trust the instincts that had been guiding him south. His homing radar was tingling like crazy now. The end of his journey was close almost right under his feet. But how could that be? There was nothing on the hilltop.

"Lupa?" Nico asked. "Lupa is a wolf goddess who fed Romulus and Remus. And trainer of demigods in the roman camp" Jason answered. "What journey is Percy in any way?" Annabeth asked.

The wind changed. Percy caught the sour scent of reptile. A hundred yards down the slope, something rustled through the woods snapping branches, crunching leaves, hissing.

Gorgons.

"Oh, he's dead!" Travis said.

For the millionth time, Percy wished their noses weren't so good. They had always said they could smell him because he was a demigod the half-blood son of some old Roman god. Percy had tried rolling in mud, splashing through creeks, even keeping air-freshener sticks in his pockets so he'd have that new car smell; but apparently demigod stink was hard to mask.

"You need to do better than that, Perce." Grover added.

He scrambled to the west side of the summit. It was too steep to descend. The slope plummeted eighty feet, straight to the roof of an apartment complex built into the side of the hill. Fifty feet below that, a highway emerged from the base of the hill and wound its way toward Berkeley. Great. No other way off the hill. He'd managed to get himself cornered.

"Oh no he's trapped! Where are his friends in Roman camp?" Piper asked.

"They mostly don't have partners during quests in Roman Camp" Jason answered.

He stared at the stream of cars flowing west toward San Francisco and wished he were in one of them.

"Do we all." Some of the campers complained.

Then he realized the highway must cut through the hill. There must be a tunnel . . . right under his feet. His internal radar went nuts. He was in the right place, just too high up. He had to check out that tunnel. He needed a way down to the highway fast.

He slung off his backpack. He'd managed to grab a lot of supplies at the Napa Bargain Mart:

"Napa Bargain Mart!" Travis said. "Connor, that place is so easy to loot!" Connor gave Travis a high five.

a portable GPS, duct tape, lighter, superglue, water bottle, camping roll, a comfy panda pillow pet (as seen on TV),

"I want one!" "That panda is so cute!" Some of the girls said. The boys just rolled their eyes. Then Clovis said "That makes a comfy pillow, wake me up later zzzzzzzzzzz."

and a Swiss army knife pretty much every tool a modern demigod could want. `

"Cool! Travis I know what to give you on your birthday!" Connor said. "What?" Travis said. "A panda pillow pet!"

But he had nothing that would serve as a parachute or a sled.

"Why he needs a sled for?"Will said. "To get down the hill, you dummy!" Clarisse barked.

That left him two options: jump eighty feet to his death, or stand and fight. Both options sounded pretty bad.

"Stand and fight. You wimp." Clarisse barked. "Clarisse, shut up." Annabeth said.

He cursed and pulled his pen from his pocket.

"How did he fight with a pen?" Leo said. "Use them!".

The pen didn't look like much, just a regular cheap ballpoint, but when Percy uncapped it, it grew into a glowing bronze sword. The blade balanced perfectly. The leather grip fit his hand like it had been custom designed for him. Etched along the guard was an Ancient Greek word Percy somehow understood: Anaklusmos Riptide.

"That so cool!" some of the camper said that don't know Percy much.

He'd woken up with this sword his first night at the Wolf House two months ago? More? He'd lost track. He'd found himself in the courtyard of a burned-out mansion in the middle of the woods, wearing shorts, an orange T-shirt, and a leather necklace with a bunch of strange clay beads. Riptide had been in his hand, but Percy had had no idea who he was or how he'd gotten there. He'd been barefoot, freezing, and confused. And then the wolves came. . . .

"Two months?" Annabeth said. "That mean now .. Chiron .. can we ." "Annabeth, its Percy quest. He must do it alone."

Right next to him, a familiar voice jolted him back to the present: "There you are!"

Percy stumbled away from the gorgon, almost falling off the edge of the hill. It was the smiley one Beano.

"Percy, run away! Get a mirror!" Leo said. "A mirror?" Piper asked. "Yes, a mirror! Then when the Gorgon sees her own reflection, she will turn to stone!"

"Who told you that lie?" Piper slapped her forehead.

"Plus, only Medusa can turn people to stone."Annabeth added.

Okay, her name wasn't really Beano. As near as Percy could figure, he was dyslexic, because words got twisted around when he tried to read. The first time he'd seen the gorgon, posing as a Bargain Mart greeter with a big green button that read: welcome! My name is Stheno; he'd thought it said beano.

She was still wearing her green Bargain Mart employee vest over a flower-print dress. If you just looked at her body, you might think she was somebody's dumpy old grandmother until you looked down and realized she had rooster feet. Or you looked up and saw bronze boar tusks sticking out of the corners of her mouth. Her eyes glowed red, and her hair was a writhing nest of bright green snakes.

"They have rooster feet?" Leo said.

The most horrible thing about her? She was still holding her big silver platter of free samples: Crispy Cheese 'n' Wieners. Her platter was all dented from all the times Percy killed her, but those little samples looked perfectly fine. Stheno just kept toting them across California so she could offer Percy a snack before she killed him. Percy didn't know why she kept doing that, but if he ever needed a suit of armor, he was going to make it out of Crispy Cheese 'n' Wieners. That stuff was indestructible.

"How can you make armor with that? I want to try!" Leo said. Then Annabeth glared at him "After I'm done with the boat "

"Try one?" Stheno offered. Percy fended her off with his sword. "Where's your sister?" "Oh, put the sword away," Stheno chided. "You know by now that even Celestial bronze can't kill us for long. Have a Cheese 'n' Wiener! They're on sale this week, and I'd hate to kill you on an empty stomach."

"Why? You want him stuffed like a Christmas turkey so you can eat him?" Lou asked.

"Stheno!" The second gorgon appeared on Percy's right so fast, he didn't have time to react. Fortunately she was too busy glaring at her sister to pay him much attention. "I told you to sneak up on him and kill him!"

Stheno's smile wavered. "But, Euryale . . ." She said the name so it rhymed with Muriel. "Can't I give him a sample first?"

"No, you imbecile!" Euryale turned toward Percy and bared her fangs.

Except for her hair, which was a nest of coral snakes instead of green vipers, she looked exactly like her sister. Her Bargain Mart vest, her flowery dress, even her tusks were decorated with 50% off stickers. Her name badge read: Hello! My name is DIE, DEMIGOD SCUM!

"She completely blew it up doesn't she?" Will said.

"You've led us quite a chase, Percy Jackson," Euryale said. "But now you're trapped, and we'll have our revenge!"

"The Cheese 'n' Wieners are only $2.99," Stheno added helpfully. "Grocery department, aisle three."

"Euryale snarled. "Stheno, the Bargain Mart was a front! You're going native! Now, put down that ridiculous tray and help me kill this demigod. Or have you forgotten that he's the one who vaporized Medusa?"

"Percy vaporized Medusa!" Leo said "why don't you tell me!" turning to Annabeth.

"That happened during our first quest. The head is at his house I think." Annabeth said.

Percy stepped back. Six more inches, and he'd be tumbling through thin air. "Look, ladies, we've been over this. I don't even remember killing Medusa. I don't remember anything! Can't we just call a truce and talk about your weekly specials?"Stheno gave her sister a pouty look, which was hard to do with giant bronze tusks. "Can we?

"No!" Euryale's red eyes bored into Percy. "I don't care what you remember, son of the sea god. I can smell Medusa's blood on you. It's faint, yes, several years old, but you were the last one to defeat her. She still has not returned from Tartarus. It's your fault!"

Percy didn't really get that. The whole "dying then returning from Tartarus" concept gave him a headache.

"Me too, evenTartarus is near my room." Nico said.

Of course, so did the idea that a ballpoint pen could turn into a sword or that monster could disguise themselves with something called the Mist, or that Percy was the son of a barnacle encrusted god from five thousand years ago.

"Don't let your dad found out." Travis said. "Or you will be a puddle of sea water!" Connor said high five his brother. "Yeah whatever" Annabeth said and continued.

But he did believe it. Even though his memory was erased, he knew he was a demigod the same way he knew his name was Percy Jackson. From his very first conversation with Lupa the wolf, he'd accepted that this crazy messed-up world of gods and monsters was his reality. Which pretty much sucked.

"Just like Jason ." said Rachel. Jason nodded.

"How about we call it a draw?" he said. "I can't kill you. You can't kill me. If you're Medusa's sisters like the Medusa who turned people to stone shouldn't I be petrified by now?" "Heroes!" Euryale said with disgust. "They always bring that up, just like our mother! 'Why can't you turn people to stone? Your sister can turn people to stone.' Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, boy! That was Medusa's curse alone. She was the most hideous one in the family. She got all the luck!" Stheno looked hurt. "Mother said I was the most hideous."

"I kind of felt pity for Stheno." Miranda said.

"Quiet!" Euryale snapped. "As for you, Percy Jackson, it's true you bear the mark of Achilles. That makes you a little tougher to kill. But don't worry. We'll find a way."

"The mark of what?"

"Achilles," Stheno said cheerfully. "Oh, he was gorgeous! Dipped in the River Styx as a child, you know, so he was invulnerable except for a tiny spot on his ankle. That's what happened to you, dear. Someone must've dumped you in the Styx and made your skin like iron.

Everyone looked at Nico. "What? I just give him the idea. Or he will be dead by now!" Nico complained.

But not to worry. Heroes like you always have a weak spot. We just have to find it, and then we can kill you. Won't that be lovely? Have a Cheese 'n' Wiener!"

"I starting to get tired of the Cheese 'n' Wiener," said Butch.

Percy tried to think. He didn't remember any dip in the Styx. Then again, he didn't remember much of anything. His skin didn't feel like iron, but it would explain how he'd held out so long against the gorgons. Maybe if he just fell down the mountain . . . would he survive?

"Well Luke survived when he jump of the mountain. And he dipped in the River Styx. Let's don't risk that " Annabeth said.

"Who's Luke?" Piper asked.

"Long story . Tell you later "

He didn't want to risk it not without something to slow the fall, or a sled, or . . .

He looked at Stheno's large silver platter of free samples.

Hmm . . .

"What can a silver platter do anyway?" Rachel asked.

"You see" said Annabeth.

"Reconsidering?" Stheno asked. "Very wise, dear. I added some gorgon's blood to these, so your death will be quick and painless."

"Gorgon's blood? YUCK" said the campers.

Percy's throat constricted. "You added your blood to the Cheese 'n' Wieners?""Just a little." Stheno smiled. "A little nick on my arm, but you're sweet to be concerned. Blood from our right side can cure anything, you know, but blood from our left side is deadly "

"Remind me to use the right side of the gorgon's blood to cure you guys." Said Will.

"No thank you! We rather died!" everyone said.

"Ok..Ok.. Just kidding!"

"You dimwit!" Euryale screeched. "You're not supposed to tell him that! He won't eat the wieners if you tell him they're poisoned!"

Stheno looked stunned. "He won't? But I said it would be quick and painless."

"Lady, nobody wants to die," said Connor.

"Never mind!" Euryale's fingernails grew into claws.

"We'll kill him the hard way just keep slashing until we find the weak spot. Once we defeat Percy Jackson, we'll be more famous than Medusa! Our patron will reward us greatly!"

Annabeth is praying silently hoping that Percy survived.

Percy gripped his sword. He'd have to time his move perfectly a few seconds of confusion, grab the platter with his left hand . . .

Keep them talking, he thought.

"Before you slash me to bits," he said, "who's this patron you mentioned?"

Euryale sneered. "The goddess Gaea, of course! The one who brought us back from oblivion! You won't live long enough to meet her, but your friends below will soon face her wrath. Even now, her armies are marching south. At the Feast of Fortune, she'll awaken, and the demigods will be cut down like like "

"Like our low prices at Bargain Mart!" Stheno suggested.

Most of the people laughed.

"Gah!" Euryale stormed toward her sister.

Percy took the opening. He grabbed Stheno's platter, scattering poisoned Cheese 'n' Wieners, and slashed Riptide across Euryale's waist, cutting her in half.

"GO PERCY!" said the Stoll, Leo, Jason and all the other campers.

He raised the platter, and Stheno found herself facing her own greasy reflection.

"Medusa!" she screamed.

Some people laughed.

Her sister Euryale had crumbled to dust, but she was already starting to re-form, like a snowman un-melting.

"Stheno, you fool!" she gurgled as her half-made face rose from the mound of dust. "That's just your own reflection! Get him!"

Percy slammed the metal tray on top of Stheno's head and she passed out cold.

He put the platter behind his butt, said a silent prayer to whatever Roman god oversaw stupid sledding tricks, and jumped off the side of the hill.

"That the end . Let's go back-''said Rachel. Suddenly Annabeth ran out the big house crying grabbing the paper, running toward Thalia's pine tree.

Everyone tried to catch her. Chiron caught up to Annabeth "Chiron Percy in trouble .how can I leave him like this! I need to find him .. Please " Annabeth eyes were red, her face was pale. Rachel and Piper were the first to catch up, "Rachel ." said Annabeth sobbing.

"You the oracle tell me . tell me . Will Percy be safe .please "

"Annabeth .you know I can't ."

More and more people came. Then Piper tried using charm speaking to comfort her "Annabeth Percy will be fine; we will build the ship as fast as we can. Then we will sail to find Percy."

Nico said "I can use some undead builders to build the ship, we can even call Tyson."

"Percy is going to pay for getting in trouble! We will send him back! We promise," said Clarisse.

"You promise .." said Annabeth sobbing.

"Swear on river Styx, Annabeth,"said the Stoll's.

Some of them hugged her and tried their best to comfort her.

Chiron said "It has been a long night, let's go back to sleep."

Annabeth rubbed the tears out of her cheeks "Wake up early, we got a boat to build and a leader to find."

"That- the Annabeth we knew," said some older camper.


	2. Chapter 2

The Son of Neptune

PERCY

THE THING ABOUT PLUMMETING DOWNHILL at fifty miles an hour on a snack platter if you realize it's a bad idea when you're halfway down, it's too late. Percy narrowly missed a tree,

"That was really close " Travis whistled.

glanced off a boulder,

"Whoa, is he crazy or something?" One of the hunters shouted.

and spun a three-sixty as he shot toward the highway.

"Hmm, he'll get dizzy like that," Drew muttered "I'm not gonna try it."

"Of course you won't, Drew," Piper taunted "You're not brave enough."

The stupid snack tray did not have power steering.

"Unless I made it!" Leo said proudly.

He heard the gorgon sisters screaming and caught a glimpse of Euryale's coral-snake hair at the top of the hill, but he didn't have time to worry about it. The roof of the apartment building loomed below him like the prow of a battleship. Head-on collision in ten, nine, eight

"Please be alright!" Annabeth made a silent prayer.

He managed to swivel sideways to avoid breaking his legs on impact. The snack platter skittered across the roof and sailed through the air. The platter went one way. Percy went the other.

"That's bad!" Nico said.

As he fell toward the highway, a horrible scenario flashed through his mind: his body smashing against an SUV's windshield, some annoyed commuter trying to push him off with the wipers. Stupidsixteen-year-old kid falling from the sky!I'm late!

The whole camp cracked up, even Chiron chuckled a bit.

Miraculously, a gust of wind blew him to one side just enough to miss the highway and crash into a clump of bushes. It wasn't a soft landing, but it was better than asphalt.

Percy groaned. He wanted to lie there and pass out, but he had to keep moving. He struggled to his feet. His hands were scratched up, but no bones seemed to be broken. He still had his backpack. Somewhere on the sled ride he'd lost his sword, but Percy knew it would eventually reappear in his pocket in pen form. That was part of its magic.

"That's so cool! I want a sword like that!" Someone said.

He glanced up the hill. The gorgons were hard to miss, with their colorful snake hair and their bright green Bargain Mart vests. They were picking their way down the slope, going slower than Percy but with a lot more control. Those chicken feet must've been good for climbing.

"Of course they are! Chicken feet have three claws at the front and one at the back. Inside the feet ," Malcolm explained.

"Shut up, Brain Boy!" Clarisse hissed.

Percy figured he had maybe five minutes before they reached him. Next to him, a tall chain-link fence separated the highway from a neighborhood of winding streets, cozy houses, and tall eucalyptus trees. The fence was probably there to keep people from getting onto the highway and doing stupid things like sledding into the fast lane on snack trays but the chain-link was full of big holes. Percy could easily slip through into the neighborhood. Maybe he could find a car and drive west to the ocean. He didn't like stealing cars,

"We do! We'd love to steal a Ferrari!" The Stoll brother said. Some of the campers just glared at them.

but over the past few weeks, in life-and-death situations, he'd "borrowed" several, including a police cruiser.

"He's worse than me " Piper mumbled as Leo and Jason glanced at her.

He'd meant to return them, but they never seemed to last very long.

"He sure knows how to break things!" Andro pointed out helpfully.

He glanced east. Just as he'd figured, a hundred yards uphill the highway cut through the base of the cliff. Two tunnel entrances, one for each direction of traffic, stared down at him like eye sockets of a giant skull.

Nico grinned.

In the middle, where the nose would have been, a cement wall jutted from the hillside, with a metal door like the entrance to a bunker.

"Just like our Bunker 9!" Leo said in delight.

It might have been a maintenance tunnel. That's probably what mortals thought, if they noticed the door at all. But they couldn't see through the Mist. Percy knew the door was more than that. Two kids in armor flanked the entrance. They wore a bizarre mix of plumed Roman helmets, breastplates, scabbards, blue jeans, purple T-shirts, and white athletic shoes.

"They are the Romans." Chiron explained.

The guard on the right looked like a girl, though it was hard to tell for sure with all the armor. The one on the left was a stocky guy with a bow and quiver on his back. Both kids held long wooden staffs with iron spear tips, like old-fashioned harpoons.

"Harpoons?" Clarisse snorted.

Percy's internal radar was pinging like crazy. After so many horrible days, he'd finally reached his goal. His instincts told him that if he could make it inside that door, he might find safety for the first time since the wolves had sent him south. So why did he feel such dread? Farther up the hill, the gorgons were scrambling over the roof of the apartment complex. Three minutes away maybe less. Part of him wanted to run to the door in the hill. He'd have to cross to the median of the highway, but then it would be a short sprint. He could make it before the gorgons reached him. Part of him wanted to head west to the ocean. That's where he'd be safest. That's where his power would be greatest. Those Roman guards at the door made him uneasy. Something inside him said: This isn't my territory. This is dangerous. "You're right, of course," said a voice next to him. Percy jumped. At first he thought Beano had managed to sneak up on him again, but the old lady sitting in the bushes was even more repulsive than a gorgon.

"Who can be more repulsive than a gorgon?" Lou wondered.

She looked like a hippie who'd been kicked to the side of the road maybe forty years ago, where she'd been collecting trash and rags ever since. She wore a dress made of tie-dyed cloth, ripped-up quilts, and plastic grocery bags. Her frizzy mop of hair was gray-brown, like root-beer foam, tied back with a peace-sign headband. Warts and moles covered her face. When she smiled, she showed exactly three teeth. "It isn't a maintenance tunnel," she confided. "It's the entrance to camp." A jolt went up Percy's spine. Camp. Yes, that's where he was from. A camp. Maybe this was his home. Maybe Annabeth was close by.

"I'm over here, Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth chided. "You know you're talking to a book, right?" a random camper noticed. She turned her face away.

But something felt wrong. The gorgons were still on the roof of the apartment building. Then Stheno shrieked in delight and pointed in Percy's direction. The old hippie lady raised her eyebrows. "Not much time, child. You need to make your choice." "Who are you?" Percy asked, though he wasn't sure he wanted to know. The last thing he needed was another harmless mortal who turned out to be a monster. "Oh, you can call me June." The old lady's eyes sparkled as if she'd made an excellent joke. "It isJune, isn't it? They named the month after me!" "Okay Look, I should go. Two gorgons are coming. I don't want them to hurt you." June clasped her hands over her heart. "How sweet! But that's part of your choice!"

Some camper gagged as Thalia said to the part where June said "Sweet."

"My choice " Percy glanced nervously toward the hill. The gorgons had taken off their green vests. Wings sprouted from their backs small bat wings, which glinted like brass. Since when did they have wings?

"Hmm, he's dumber than I thought he'd be!" Annabeth said miserably.

Maybe they were ornamental. Maybe they were too small to get a gorgon into the air.

"Yeah right, Kelp Head!" Andro rolled her eyes. "Shut up, sis!" Selene (Andro's stepsister who's a hunter) barked. "Whatever, Selene!" Andro said back.

Then the two sisters leaped off the apartment building and soared toward him. Great. Just great. "Yes, a choice," June said, as if she were in no hurry. "You could leave me here at the mercy of the gorgons and go to the ocean. You'd make it there safely, I guarantee. The gorgons will be quite happy to attack me and let you go. In the sea, no monster would bother you. You could begin a new life, live to a ripe old age, and escape a great deal of pain and misery that is in your future." Percy was pretty sure he wasn't going to like the second option.

"Of course you won't!" Jason said.

"Or?" "Or you could do a good deed for an old lady," she said. "Carry me to the camp with you." "Carry you?" Percy hoped she was kidding. Then June hiked up her skirts and showed him her swollen purple feet. "I can't get there by myself," she said. "Carry me to camp across the highway, through the tunnel, across the river." Percy didn't know what river she meant, but it didn't sound easy.

"Percy didn't describe a river, did he?" Annabeth glanced at Chiron. If the old teacher had something to say, he kept it from everyone.

June looked pretty heavy. The gorgons were only fifty yards away now leisurely gliding toward him as if they knew the hunt was almost over. Percy looked at the old lady. "And I'd carry you to this camp because ?" "Because it's a kindness!" she said. "And if you don't, the gods will die, the world we know will perish, and everyone from your old life will be destroyed. Of course, you wouldn't remember them, so I suppose it won't matter. You'd be safe at the bottom of the sea. " Percy swallowed.

"Will the world really end like that?" Phoebe asked.

"Let's hope not." Chiron informed.

The gorgons shrieked with laughter as they soared in for the kill. "If I go to the camp," he said, "will I get my memory back?""Eventually," June said. "But be warned, you will sacrifice much! You'll lose the mark of Achilles. You'll feel pain, misery, and loss beyond anything you've ever known.

"No, he can't! I used a whole year to convince him!" Nico barked. Annabeth looked hurt.

But you might have a chance to save your old friends and family, to reclaim your old life."

"Percy, please!" Annabeth wanted to sob but she had to be strong.

The gorgons were circling right overhead. They were probably studying the old woman, trying to figure out who the new player was before they struck. "What about those guards at the door?" Percy asked. June smiled. "Oh, they'll let you in, dear. You can trust those two. So, what do you say? Will you help a defenseless old woman?" Percy doubted June was defenseless.

"She's probably Juno/Hera! And I doubted she is defenseless even now." Jason said and looked up to the sky.

At worst, this was a trap. At best, it was some kind of test. Percy hated tests.

"Us too!" the Hermes cabin shouted.

Since he'd lost his memory, his whole life was one big fill in-the-blank. He was_, from_. He felt like_, and if the monsters caught him, he'd be_.

The campers and the hunters laughed so hard, their stomachs ached.

Then he thought about Annabeth, the only part of his old life he was sure about.

"That's really sweet!" Some Aphrodite kids chided.

He hadto find her. "I'll carry you." He scooped up the old woman. She was lighter than he expected. Percy tried to ignore her sour breath and her calloused hands clinging to his neck. He made it across the first lane of traffic. A driver honked. Another yelled something that was lost in the wind.

"How rude!" Someone from the Demeter cabin said.

Most just swerved and looked irritated, as if they had to deal with a lot of ratty teenagers carrying old hippie women across the freeway here in Berkeley.

"Of course, they had." Thalia said.

A shadow fell over him. Stheno called down gleefully, "Clever boy! Found a goddess to carry, did you?" A goddess? June cackled with delight, muttering, and "Whoops!" as a car almost killed them.

"Whoops? A car almost killed them and she said 'Whoops'?" Annabeth hissed. "What had he done to you?" she screeched

Somewhere off to his left, Euryale screamed, "Get them! Two prizes are better than one!"

"If Hera is a prize, I'm the grand prize!" Annabeth snorted to herself, careful not to let the goddess hear her.

Percy bolted across the remaining lanes. Somehow he made it to the median alive. He saw the gorgons swooping down, cars swerving as the monsters passed overhead. He wondered what the mortals saw through the Mist giant pelicans?

"Giant pelicans, hilarious!"Someone said. "Huh, did someone say 'alien' or 'pelican'? Oh well, I'm going to ZZZ " Clovis' face bumped onto his friend's lap.

Off course hang gliders? The wolf Lupa had told him that mortal minds could believe just about anything except the truth. Percy ran for the door in the hillside. June got heavier with every step. Percy's heart pounded. His ribs ached. One of the guards yelled. The guy with the bow nocked an arrow. Percy shouted, "Wait!" But the boy wasn't aiming at him. The arrow flew over Percy's head. A gorgon wailed in pain. The second guard readied her spear, gesturing frantically at Percy to hurry. Fifty feet from the door. Thirty feet. "Gotcha!" shrieked Euryale. Percy turned as an arrow thudded into her forehead. Euryale tumbled into the fast lane. A truck slammed into her and carried her backward a hundred yards, but she just climbed over the cab, pulled the arrow out of her head, and launched back into the air. Percy reached the door. "Thanks," he told the guards. "Good shot." "That should've killed her!" the archer protested. "Welcome to my world," Percy muttered. "Frank," the girl said. "Get them inside, quick! Those are gorgons." "Gorgons?" The archer's voice squeaked. It was hard to tell much about him under the helmet, but he looked stout like a wrestler, maybe fourteen or fifteen. "Will the door hold them?" In Percy's arms, June cackled. "No, no it won't. Onward, Percy Jackson! Through the tunnel, over the river!" "Percy Jackson?" The female guard was darker-skinned, with curly hair sticking out the sides of her helmet. She looked younger than Frank maybe thirteen.

Nico's face turned pale (more than usual). Andro gripped his hands "You okay, Death Boy? You don't look so good." She asked softly so no one would hear them. "It's nothing" He said as if nothing is the worst thing ever.

Her sword scabbard came down almost to her ankle. Still, she sounded like she was the one in charge. "Okay, you're obviously a demigod. But who's the ?" She glanced at June. "Never mind. Just get inside. I'll hold them off." "Hazel," the boy said.

Nico's face turned as pale as a ghost's. Andro raised an eyebrow, apparently she wasn't fooled. "Mind telling us what's going on?" Lou pitched in. "Uh, it's really nothing." He said. "Hmm, I know something! You're a bad liar!" Andro smacked him upside the head.

"Don't be crazy." "Go!" she demanded. Frank cursed in another language was that Latin? and opened the door.

"He spoke Latin?" Will Solace said. "He's like Jason!" Leo pointed out. "No duh, Valdez. He's a Roman." Nyssa rolled her eyes.

"Come on!" Percy followed, staggering under the weight of the old lady, who was definitelygetting heavier.

"Why is Hera getting heavier anyway?"Piper asked. "Who knows, maybe she's not on a diet!"Lacy of the Aphrodite cabin guessed.

He didn't know how that girl Hazel would hold off the gorgons by herself, but he was too tired to argue. The tunnel cut through solid rock, about the width and height of a school hallway. At first, it looked like a typical maintenance tunnel, with electric cables, warning signs, and fuse boxes on the walls, light bulbs in wire cages along the ceiling. As they ran deeper into the hillside, the cement floor changed to tiled mosaic. The lights changed to reed torches, which burned but didn't smoke. A few hundred yards ahead, Percy saw a square of daylight. The old lady was heavier now than a pile of sandbags. Percy's arms shook from the strain. June mumbled a song in Latin, like a lullaby, which didn't help Percy concentrate.

"I hate Hera's lullabies a lot!" Leo cursed.

Behind them, the gorgons' voices echoed in the tunnel. Hazel shouted. Percy was tempted to dump June and runback to help, but then the entire tunnel shook with the rumble of falling stone. There was a squawking sound, just like the gorgons had made when Percy had dropped a crate of bowling balls on them in Napa.

"That has got to hurt!"Selene rubbed her head.

He glanced back. The west end of the tunnel was now filled with dust. "Shouldn't we check on Hazel?" he asked. "She'll be okay I hope," Frank said. "She's good underground.

Nico gulped and melted into the shadow. "Where do you think you're going, Di Angelo?" Andro and Lou scowled. "Um, I'm going to the toilet." He lied "Get back quickly!" The girls hissed. He jogged off and prayed not to be noticed.

Just keep moving! We're almost there.""Almost where?"June chuckled. "All roads lead there, child. You should know that.""Detention?" Percy asked.

"Did Percy get into many detentions?" Jason asked. "Well, yes, he did!" Chiron nodded.

"Rome, child," the old woman said. "Rome." Percy wasn't sure he'd heard her right. True, his memory was gone. His brain hadn't felt right since he had woken up at the Wolf House. But he was pretty sure Rome wasn't in California.

Everyone rolled their eyes.

They kept running. The glow at the end of the tunnel grew brighter, and finally they burst into sunlight. Percy froze. Spread out at his feet was a bowl-shaped valley several miles wide. The basin floor was rumpled with smaller hills, golden plains, and stretches of forest. A small clear river cut a winding course from a lake in the center and around the perimeter, like a capital G. The geography could've been anywhere in northern California live oaks and eucalyptus trees, gold hills and blue skies. That big inland mountain what was it called, Mount Diablo? rose in the distance, right where it should be. But Percy felt like he'd stepped into a secret world.

"It's like Camp Half Blood but a Roman version." Annabeth nodded.

In the center of the valley, nestled by the lake, was a small city of white marble buildings with red-tiled roofs. Some had domes and columned porticoes, like national monuments. Others looked like palaces, with golden doors and large gardens. He could see an open plaza with freestanding columns, fountains, and statues. A five-story-tall Roman coliseum gleamed in the sun, next to a long oval arena like a racetrack. Across the lake to the south, another hill was dotted with even more impressive buildings temples, Percy guessed. Several stone bridges crossed the river as it wound through the valley, and in the north, a long line of brickwork arches stretched from the hills into the town. Percy thought it looked like an elevated train track. Then he realized it must be an aqueduct. The strangest part of the valley was right below him. About two hundred yards away, just across the river, was some sort of military encampment. It was about a quarter mile square, with earthen ramparts on all four sides, the tops lined with sharpened spikes. Outside the walls ran a dry moat, also studded with spikes.

"I guess they love spikes like us." Clarisse muttered.

Wooden watchtowers rose at each corner, manned by sentries with oversized, mounted crossbows. Purple banners hung from the towers. A wide gateway opened on the far side of camp, leading toward the city. A narrower gate stood closed on the riverbank side. Inside, the fortress bustled with activity: dozens of kids going to and from barracks, carrying weapons, polishing armor. Percy heard the clank of hammers at a forge and smelled meat cooking over a fire. Something about this place felt very familiar, yet not quite right. "Camp Jupiter,"

Jason eyes lit up, he finally remembers how Camp Jupiter looks like.

Frank said. "We'll be safe once " Footsteps echoed in the tunnel behind them. Hazel burst into the light. She was covered with stone dust and breathing hard. She'd lost her helmet, so her curly brown hair fell around her shoulders. Her armor had long slash marks in front from the claws of a gorgon. One of the monsters had tagged her with a 50% off sticker.

Some people laughed "So she's 50% off, right?" Connor and Travis laughed at Hazel. Nico huffed but no one heard him.

"I slowed them down," she said. "But they'll be here any second." Frank cursed. "We have to get across the river." June squeezed Percy's neck tighter. "Oh, yes, please. I can't get my dress wet."

"Hippie Hera!" Annabeth muttered to herself.

Percy bit his tongue. If this lady was a goddess, she must've been the goddess of smelly, heavy, useless hippies.

"Ha! I knew it! She is a hippie!" Annabeth clapped her hands together. "Annabeth, learn to respect the goddess!" Chiron snapped.

But he'd come this far. He'd better keep lugging her along. It's a kindness,she'd said. And if youdon't, the gods will die, the world we knowwill perish, and everyone from your old lifewill be destroyed. If this was a test, he couldn't afford to get an F. He stumbled a few times as they ran for the river. Frank and Hazel kept him on his feet. They reached the riverbank, and Percy stopped to catch his breath. The current was fast, but the river didn't look deep. Only a stone's throw across stood the gates of the fort. "Go, Hazel." Frank nocked two arrows at once. "Escort Percy so the sentries don't shoot him.

"Did he say 'so the sentries won't shoot' him?" Annabeth's eyes widen. "Uh, the sentries are, um, securities, I guess." Sweat dropped from Jason's forehead because he's afraid Annabeth would bite his head off.

It's my turn to hold off the baddies." Hazel nodded and waded into the stream. Percy started to follow, but something made him hesitated. Usually he loved the water, but this river seemed powerful, and not necessarily friendly. "The Little Tiber," said June sympathetically. "It flows with the power of the original Tiber, river of the empire. This is your last chance to back out, child. The mark of Achilles is a Greek blessing. You can't retain it if you cross into Roman territory. The Tiber will wash it away."

Right now, Nico cursed silently. It took a whole year to convince Percy, with one swim and it's gone. Right now he needs to leave or he's death meat. He can't let the camp know his secrets.

Percy was too exhausted to understand all that, but he got the main point. "If I cross, I won't have iron skin anymore?" June smiled. "So what will it be? Safety, or a future of pain and possibility?" Behind him, the gorgons screeched as they flew from the tunnel. Frank let his arrows fly. From the middle of the river, Hazel yelled, "Percy, come on!" Up on the watchtowers, horns blew. The sentries shouted and swiveled their crossbows toward the gorgons. Annabeth, Percy thought. He forged into the river. It was icy cold, much swifter than he'd imagined, but that didn't bother him. New strength surged through his limbs. His senses tingled like he'd been injected with caffeine. He reached the other side and put the old woman down as the camp's gates opened. Dozens of kids in armor poured out.

"Are those the campers?" a random Hermes kid said. "DUH," shouted another Ares' child.

Hazel turned with a relieved smile. Then she looked over Percy's shoulder, and her expression changed to horror. "Frank!" Frank was halfway across the river when the gorgons caught him. They swooped out of the sky and grabbed him by either arm. He screamed in pain as their claws dug into his skin. The sentries yelled, but Percy knew they couldn't get a clear shot. They'd end up killing Frank. The other kids drew swords and got ready to charge into the water, but they'd be too late. There was only one way. Percy thrust out his hands. An intense tugging sensation filled his gut, and the Tiber obeyed his will. The river surged. Whirlpools formed on either side of Frank.

"Whoa! That must be cool!"Leo's eyes widen. That's not just it! Nico thought but he didn't spoke it aloud.

Giant watery hands erupted from the stream, copying Percy's movements.

"I take it back. This is extremely cooler!" Leo said. "Shut up, Valdez!" Someone shouted.

The giant hands grabbed the gorgons, who dropped Frank in surprise. Then the hands lifted the squawking monsters in a liquid vise grip Percy heard the other kids yelping and backing away, but he stayed focused on his task.

"Wait a second! Do gorgons even squawk at all?" Katie asked. "Who knows, maybe they do!"Annabeth answered.

He made a smashing gesture with his fists, and the giant hands plunged the gorgons into the Tiber. The monsters hit bottom and broke into dust. Glittering clouds of gorgon essence struggled to re-form, but the river pulled them apart like a blender. Soon every trace of the gorgons was swept downstream. The whirlpools vanished, and the current returned to normal.

"Very, super, extremely !" Leo continued "Shut up, Leo Valdez!" Andro hissed and purple energy slammed onto Leo's mouth. Leo shouted in a muffled voice but I bet you don't want to know what he said. "Much better now!" Andro swept the dust from her hands.

Percy stood on the riverbank. His clothes and his skin steamed as if the Tiber's waters had given him an acid bath He felt exposed, raw vulnerable.

"Uh-oh, he lost his Achilles' curse! No way! It took me a year!" The son of Hades wailed. "Are you done yet? Can I read now?" Thalia hissed.

In the middle of the Tiber, Frank stumbled around, looking stunned but perfectly fine. Hazel waded out and helped him ashore. Only then did Percy realize how quiet the other kids had become.

"Romans, behold the mighty Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, Hero of Olympus, Defeater Kronos, Hyperion, Iapetus and Atlas, Slayer of monsters !" Jake Mason said "We know already!" The other campers shouted at him. He melted into his seat quietly.

Everyone was staring at him. Only the old lady June looked unfazed. "Well, that was a lovely trip," she said. "Thank you, Percy Jackson, for bringing me to Camp Jupiter." One of the girls made a choking sound. "Percy Jackson?" She sounded as if she recognized his name.

"Which Roman knows Percy?" Annabeth asked. Nobody answered her.

Percy focused on her, hoping to see a familiar face. She was obviously a leader. She wore a regal purple cloak over her armor. Her chest was decorated with medals. She must have been about Percy's age, with dark, piercing eyes and long black hair.

"She must be Reyna " Jason muttered to himself. Luckily, no one heard him.

Percy didn't recognize her, but the girl stared at him as if she'd seen him in her nightmares. June laughed with delight. "Oh, yes. You'll have such fun together!" Then, just because the day hadn't been weird enough already, the old lady began to glow and change form.

Some of the campers gulped.

She grew until she was a shining, seven-foot-tall goddess in a blue dress, with a cloak that looked like goat's skin over her shoulders. Her face was stern and stately. In her hand was a staff topped with a lotus flower.

"She's Juno!" Jason said with distaste.

If it was possible for the campers to look more stunned, they did. The girl with the purple cloak knelt. The others followed her lead. One kid got down so hastily he almost impaled himself on his sword.

Some camper laughed.

Hazel was the first to speak. "Juno." She and Frank also fell to their knees, leaving Percy the only one standing. He knew he should probably kneel too, but after carrying the old lady so far, he didn't feel like showing her that much respect.

"You go, Percy." Annabeth thought. "That's dangerous." Someone said.

"Juno, huh?" he said. "If I passed your test, can I have my memory and my life back?" The goddess smiled. "In time, Percy Jackson, if you succeed here at camp. You've done well today, which is a good start. Perhaps there's hope for you yet." She turned to the other kids. "Romans, I present to you the son of Neptune. For months he has been slumbering, but now he is awake. His fate is in your hands. The Feast of Fortune comes quickly, and Death must be unleashed if you are to stand any hope in the battle.

"What did she mean by 'death must be unleashed'?" Travis asked. "Death is called Thanatos too, the lieutenant of Hades." Nico explained.

Do not fail me!" Juno shimmered and disappeared. Percy looked at Hazel and Frank for some kind of explanation, but they seemed just as confused as he was. Frank was holding something Percy hadn't noticed before two small clay flasks with cork stoppers, like potions, one in each hand.

"What type of potion? Are they invisibility potion or what?" Andro asked. Lou just shook her head.

Percy had no idea where they'd come from, but he saw Frank slip them into his pockets. Frank gave him a look like: We'll talk about it later. The girl in the purple cloak stepped forward. She examined Percy warily, and Percy couldn't shake the feeling that she wanted to run him through with her dagger. "So," she said coldly, "a son of Neptune, who comes to us with the blessing of Juno." "Look," he said, "my memory's a little fuzzy. Um, it's gone, actually. Do I know you?" The girl hesitated. "I am Reyna, praetor of the Twelfth Legion.

"Reyna's the only praetor now with me not around. Oh no, Octavian is going to blackmail other people to !" Jason said to himself until everyone was looking at him "Uh, hello guys! What is it?" Jason smiled awkwardly.

And no, I don't know you." That last part was a lie. Percy could tell from her eyes.

"Why did she lie?" Piper asked but no one knows.

But he also understood that if he argued with her about it here, in front of her soldiers, she wouldn't appreciate it. "Hazel," said Reyna, "bring him inside. I want to question him at the principia. Then we'll send him to Octavian. We must consult the auguries before we decide what to do with him."

"What did she mean 'decide what to do with' him?" Annabeth hissed.

"What do you mean," Percy asked, "'decide what to do with' me?"

"Annabeth, that was really creepy." Thalia said.

Reyna's hand tightened on her dagger. Obviously she was not used to having her orders questioned. "Before we accept anyone into camp, we must interrogate them and read the auguries. Juno said your fate is in our hands. We have to know whether the goddess has brought us as a new recruit. " Reyna studied Percy as if she found that doubtful. "Or," she said more hopefully, "if she's brought us an enemy to kill."

The campers gulped. "Jason, you must swear upon River Styx that Reyna won't kill Percy!" Annabeth pointed her dagger at Jason's throat "But I-I'm not Reyna! She said that not !" Annabeth's dagger dug deeper into his chin "Swear, Jason, swear Reyna won't kill him!" Annabeth growled "F-Fine, I swear upon River Styx! I really swear!" Jason stammered. Annabeth nodded "Good, really good!"


	3. Chapter 3

THE SON OF NEPTUNE

PERCY WASN'T SCARED OF GHOSTS, which was lucky.

"No, duh. He went in and out the Underworld many times," Nico said. "He went where?" Leo demanded. "Went in and out the Underworld," Annabeth added, "Three or four time I guess.""Three or four?" Jason, "and he's alive!" "Well, you want me to boast about Percy or continue the book?" Jason continued reading.

Half the people in camp were dead.

"Seriously?" Rachel asked.

Shimmering purple warriors stood outside the armory, polishing ethereal swords. Others hung out in front of the barracks. A ghostly boy chased a ghostly dog down the street. And at the stables, a big glowing red dude with the head of a wolf guarded a herd of Were those unicorns?

"Unicorns?" Will asked. "What are the unicorns for? Are they even real?" "Greek gods are real, anything can be possible." Andro pointed. "After all, we used their horns for healing." Jason added. "How dare you, cut down the animal's horn!" Grover argued. "The horn fallen off itself!" Jason protested. "Humph." Grover mumbled.

None of the campers paid the ghosts much attention, but as Percy's entourage walked by, with Reyna in the lead and Frank and Hazel on either side, all the spirits stopped what they were doing and stared at Percy. A few looked angry. The little boy ghost shrieked something like "Greggus!" and turned invisible.

"What does 'Greggus' mean?" Annabeth asked. "Mmm ," Jason hesitated, "I will explain later," Before Annabeth could say a word, Jason continued.

Percy wished he could turn invisible too. After weeks on his own, all this attention made him uneasy. He stayed between Hazel and Frank and tried to look inconspicuous. "Am I seeing things?" he asked. "Or are those " "Ghosts?" Hazel turned. She had startling eyes, like fourteen-karat gold. "They're Lares. House gods." "House gods," Percy said. "Like smaller than real gods, but larger than apartment gods?"

The campers cracked up. It took them a few minutes to settle down.

"They're ancestral spirits," Frank explained. He'd removed his helmet, revealing a babyish face that didn't go with his military haircut or his big burly frame. He looked like a toddler who'd taken steroids and joined the Marines. "The Lares are kind of like mascots," he continued. "Mostly they're harmless, but I've never seen them so agitated." "They're staring at me," Percy said. "That ghost kid called me Greggus. My name isn't Greg."

The camper laughed again. "I can't believe how funny Percy is!" Someone said.

"Graecus," Hazel said. "Once you've been here awhile, you'll start understanding Latin. Demigods have a natural sense for it. Graecus means Greek."

"Greek, as it's in a good thing or a bad thing?" Annabeth asked crossing her arm. Jason ignored her and read.

"Is that bad?" Percy asked. Frank cleared his throat. "Maybe not. You've got that type of complexion, the dark hair and all. Maybe they think you're actually Greek. Is your family from there?" "Don't know. Like I said, my memory is gone." "Or maybe " Frank hesitated. "What?" Percy asked. "Probably nothing," Frank said. "Romans and Greeks have an old rivalry. Sometimes Romans use graecus as an insult for someone who's an outsider an enemy.

"What!" all the Greek demigods in camp shouted. Jason sank into his sit. Piper saw Jason had a lot of pressure in him. She tried charm speaking the campers. Finally the campers calmed down, and Jason read again.

I wouldn't worry about it." He sounded pretty worried. They stopped at the center of camp, where two wide stone-paved roads met at a T. A street sign labeled the road to the main gates as via praetoria. The other road, cutting across the middle of camp, was labeled via principalis. Under those markers were hand-painted signs like Berkeley 5 miles; NEW ROME 1 MILE; OLD ROME 7280 MILES; HADES 2310 MILES (pointing straight down)

Some people glanced at Nico who was trying hard not to laugh.

; RENO 208 MILES, AND CERTAIN DEATH: YOU ARE HERE!

Jason shook his head as he remembers the image of the signs.

For certain death, the place looked pretty clean and orderly. The buildings were freshly whitewashed, laid out in neat grids like the camp had been designed by a fussy math teacher. The barracks had shady porches, where campers lounged in hammocks or played cards and drank sodas. Each dorm had a different collection of banners out front displaying Roman numerals and various animals eagle, bear, wolf, horse, and something that looked like a hamster. Along the Via Praetoria, rows of shops advertised food, armor, weapons, coffee, gladiator equipment, and toga rentals. A chariot dealership had a big advertisement out front: CAESAR XLS W/ANTILOCK BRAKES, NO DENARII DOWN! At one corner of the crossroads stood the most impressive building a two-story wedge of white marble with a columned portico like an old-fashioned bank.

"You guys have an old-fashioned bank? I want to loot it!" Connor and Travis said. Annabeth glared at them and told Jason to continued.

Roman guards stood out front. Over the doorway hung a big purple banner with the gold letters SPQR embroidered inside a laurel wreath.

Jason looked down at his tattoo.

"Your headquarters?" Percy asked. Reyna faced him, her eyes still cold and hostile. "It's called the principia." She scanned the mob of curious campers who had followed them from the river. "Everyone back to your duties. I'll give you an update at evening muster. Remember, we have war games after dinner." The thought of dinner made Percy's stomach rumble. The scent of barbecue from the dining hall made his mouth water. The bakery down the street smelled pretty wonderful too, but he doubted Reyna would let him get an order to go. The crowd dispersed reluctantly. Some muttered comments about Percy's chances. "He's dead," said one. "Would be those two who found him," said another. "Yeah," muttered another. "Let him join the Fifth Cohort. Greeks and geeks."

Jason frowned. Annabeth scowled and said "Hey, Greeks lived before Romans, you know? The land of Rome was actually found by the Greeks!"

Several kids laughed at that, but Reyna scowled at them, and they cleared off. "Hazel," Reyna said. "Come with us. I want your report on what happened at the gates." "Me too?" Frank said. "Percy saved my life. We've got to let him " Reyna gave Frank such a harsh look, he stepped back. "I'd remind you, Frank Zhang," she said, "you are on probatio yourself. You've caused enough trouble this week." Frank's ears turned red. He fiddled with a little tablet on a cord around his neck. Percy hadn't paid much attention to it, but it looked like a name tag made out of lead. "Go to the armory," Reyna told him. "Check our inventory. I'll call you if I need you." "But " Frank caught himself. "Yes, Reyna." He hurried off.

"Is she always that mean?" Lou asked but Jason continued.

Reyna waved Hazel and Percy toward the headquarters. "Now, Percy Jackson, let's see if we can improve your memory." The principia was even more impressive inside. On the ceiling glittered a mosaic of Romulus and Remus under their adopted mama she-wolf (Lupa had told Percy that story a million times).

"Who's Mama she-wolf?" Clarisse demanded "She's Lupa, actually." Jason explained. "You know, 'Lupa' actually means 'Forget' in the Malay and Indonesian language. But that hardly matters." Andro pointed out.

The floor was polished marble. The walls were draped in velvet, so Percy felt like he was inside the world's most expensive camping tent. And wooden poles studded with bronze. Along the back wall stood a display of banners medals military symbols, Percy guessed.

"Percy is right about the military symbol!" Jason nodded as if he liked Percy better.

In the center was one empty display stand, as if the main banner had been taken down for cleaning or something. In the back corner, a stairwell led down. It was blocked by a row of iron bars like a prison door. Percy wondered what was down there monsters? Treasure? Amnesiac demigods who had gotten on Reyna's bad side?

Everyone looked at Jason "Hey, I still don't have all my memories!" He shook his head.

In the center of the room, a long wooden table was cluttered with scrolls, notebooks, tablet computers, daggers, and a large bowl filled with jelly beans, which seemed kind of out of place.

"It is." Malcolm said.

Two life-sized statues of greyhounds one silver, one gold flanked the table.

"That's Argentum and Aurum." Jason remembered. "Silver and Gold, right?" Annabeth wondered and Jason nodded. "Are they really statues or automatons?" Leo asked "Their automatons, Leo." Jason answered.

Reyna walked behind the table and sat in one of two high-backed chairs. Percy wished he could sit in the other, but Hazel remained standing. Percy got the feeling he was supposed to also. "So " he started to say. The dog statues bared their teeth and growled. Percy froze. Normally he liked dogs, but these glared at him with ruby eyes. Their fangs looked sharp as razors. "Easy, guys," Reyna told the greyhounds. They stopped growling, but kept eyeing Percy as though they were imagining him in a doggie bag

The camper chuckled. Mrs. O'Leary barked and wagged her tail happily when she heard the words 'doggie bag'.

"They won't attack," Reyna said, "unless you try to steal something, or unless I tell them to. That's Argentum and Aurum." "Silver and Gold," Percy said. The Latin meanings popped into his head like Hazel had said they would. He almost asked which dog was which. Then he realized that that was a stupid question.

"Of course, it's stupid!" someone said.

Reyna set her dagger on the table. Percy had the vague feeling he'd seen her before.

"Reyna, eh?" Annabeth frowned.

Her hair was black and glossy as volcanic rock, woven in a single braid down her back. She had the poise of a sword fighter relaxed yet vigilant, as if ready to spring into action at any moment. The worry lines around her eyes made her look older than she probably was. "We have met," he decided. "I don't remember when. Please, if you can tell me anything " "First things first," Reyna said. "I want to hear your story. What do you remember? How did you get here? And don't lie. My dogs don't like liars." Argentum and Aurum snarled to emphasize the point.

"I like dogs but they are way too un-fun!" Grover muttered.

Percy told his story how he'd woken up at the ruined mansion in the woods of Sonoma. He described his time with Lupa and her pack, learning their language of gestures and expressions, learning to survive and fight. Lupa had taught him about demigods, monsters, and gods. She'd explained that she was one of the guardian spirits of Ancient Rome. Demigods like Percy were still responsible for carrying on Roman traditions in modern times fighting monsters, serving the gods, protecting mortals, and upholding the memory of the empire. She'd spent weeks training him, until he was as strong and tough and vicious as a wolf.

"This worries me." Annabeth said.

When she was satisfied with his skills, she'd sent him south, telling him that if he survived the journey, he might find a new home and regain his memory. None of it seemed to surprise Reyna. In fact, she seemed to find it pretty ordinary except for one thing."No memory at all?" she asked. "You still remember nothing?" "Fuzzy bits and pieces." Percy glanced at the greyhounds. He didn't want to mention Annabeth.

Annabeth's eyes were filled with tears.

It seemed too private, and he was still confused about where to find her. He was sure they'd met at a camp but this one didn't feel like the right place.

"He remembers!" Annabeth exclaimed.

Also, he was reluctant to share his one clear memory: Annabeth's face, her blond hair and gray eyes, the way she laughed, threw her arms around him, and gave him a kiss whenever he did something stupid.

Annabeth blushed.

She must have kissed me a lot, Percy thought.

Some of the Aphrodite camper giggled.

He feared that if he spoke about that memory to anyone, it would evaporate like a dream. He couldn't risk that. Reyna spun her dagger. "Most of what you're describing is normal for demigods. At a certain age, one way or another, we find our way to the Wolf House. We're tested and trained. If Lupa thinks we're worthy, she sends us south to join the legion. But I've never heard of someone losing his memory. How did you find Camp Jupiter?" Percy told her about the last three days the gorgons who wouldn't die, the old lady who turned out to be a goddess, and finally meeting Hazel and Frank at the tunnel in the hill. Hazel took the story from there. She described Percy as brave and heroic, which made him uncomfortable. All he'd done was carry a hippie bag lady.

The camper laughed at his joke.

Reyna studied him. "You're old for a recruit. You're what, sixteen?" "I think so," Percy said. "If you spent that many years on your own, without training or help, you should be dead. A son of Neptune? You'd have a powerful aura that would attract all kinds of monsters." "Yeah," Percy said. "I've been told that I smell."

Some people chuckled.

Reyna almost cracked a smile, which gave Percy hope. Maybe she was human after all.

"'Organic life-forms are easy to break down' Dad said so." Leo rolled his eyes.

"You must've been somewhere before the Wolf House," she said. Percy shrugged. Juno had said something about him slumbering, and he did have a vague feeling that he'd been asleep maybe for a long time. But that didn't make sense. Reyna sighed. "Well, the dogs haven't eaten you, so I suppose you're telling the truth." "Great," Percy said. "Next time, can I take a polygraph?"

"Can I take a ," Annabeth copied then paused "Oh, how stupid is he?"

Reyna stood. She paced in front of the banners. Her metal dogs watched her go back and forth. "Even if I accept that you're not an enemy," she said, "you're not a typical recruit. The Queen of Olympus simply doesn't appear at camp, announcing a new demigod. The last time a major god visited us in person like that " She shook her head. "I've only heard legends about such things. And a son of Neptune that's not a good omen. Especially now." "What's wrong with Neptune?" Percy asked. "And what do you mean, 'especially now'?" Hazel shot him a warning look. Reyna kept pacing. "You've fought Medusa's sisters, who haven't been seen in thousands of years. You've agitated our Lares, who are calling you a graecus. And you wear strange symbols that shirt, the beads on your necklace. What do they mean?"

"The shirt is the Camp Half-Blood T-shirt and the necklace symbolized the most serious thing that happened all year!" Will Solace said. "You do realize you just talked to a book right?" Nico informed and Will's face turned red "O-Of course I know."

Percy looked down at his tattered orange T-shirt. It might have had words on it at one point, but they were too faded to read. He should have thrown the shirt away weeks ago. It was worn to shreds, but he couldn't bear to get rid of it. He just kept washing it in streams and water fountains as best he could and putting it back on. As for the necklace, the four clay beads were each decorated with a different symbol. One showed a trident.

"It meant Percy's first year at camp." Annabeth explained.

Another displayed a miniature Golden Fleece.

"Our quest to find Grover and the Golden Fleece."

The third was etched with the design of a maze,

"It is an intricately designed maze to represent the Labyrinth. It's Percy's third year."

and the last had an image of a building maybe the Empire State Building? with names Percy didn't recognize engraved around it. The beads felt important, like pictures from a family album, but he couldn't remember what they meant.

"It is The Empire State Building with the names of the deceased in the war in tiny Greek letters." Many older campers looked down remembering the war. Some looked hurt especially cabin 9 and 5.

"I don't know," he said. "And your sword?" Reyna asked. Percy checked his pocket. The pen had reappeared as it always did. He pulled it out, but then realized he'd never shown Reyna the sword. Hazel and Frank hadn't seen it either. How had Reyna known about it? Too late to pretend it didn't exist. He uncapped the pen. Riptide sprang to full form. Hazel gasped. The greyhounds barked apprehensively. "What is that?" Hazel asked. "I've never seen a sword like that." "I have," Reyna said darkly. "It's very old a Greek design. We used to have a few in the armory before " She stopped herself.

"Before what?" Annabeth raised an eyebrow.

"The metal is called Celestial bronze. It's deadly to monsters, like Imperial gold, but even rarer." "Imperial gold?" Percy asked. Reyna unsheathed her dagger. Sure enough, the blade was gold. "The metal was consecrated in ancient times, at the Pantheon in Rome. Its existence was a closely guarded secret of the emperors a way for their champions to slay monsters that threatened the empire. We used to have more weapons like this, but now well, we scrape by. I use this dagger. Hazel has a spatha, a cavalry sword. Most legionnaires use a shorter sword called a gladius. But that weapon of yours is not Roman at all. It's another sign you're not a typical demigod. And your arm..." "What about it?" Percy asked. Reyna held up her own forearm. Percy hadn't noticed before, but she had a tattoo on the inside: the letters SPQR, a crossed sword and torch, and under that, four parallel lines like score marks. Percy glanced at Hazel. "We all have them," she confirmed, holding up her arm. "All full members of the legion do." Hazel's tattoo also had the letters SPQR, but she only had one score mark, and her emblem was different: a black glyph like a cross with curved arms and a head:

"The symbol of Pluto," Nico mumbled. Andro raised an eyebrow "You mean the planet, right?" "Uh, yes."  
" Percy looked at his own arms. A few scrapes, some mud, and a fleck of Crispy Cheese 'n' Wiener, but no tattoos. "So you've never been a member of the legion," Reyna said. "These marks can't be removed. I thought perhaps " She shook her head, as if dismissing an idea. Hazel leaned forward. "If he's survived as a loner all this time, maybe he's seen Jason."

"Nope he doesn't." Jason said.

She turned to Percy. "Have you ever met a demigod like us before? A guy in a purple shirt, with marks on his arm " "Hazel." Reyna's voice tightened. "Percy's got enough to worry about." Percy touched the point of his sword and Riptide shrank back into a pen. "I haven't seen anyone like you guys before. Who's Jason?" Reyna gave Hazel an irritated look. "He is he was my colleague." She waved her hand at the second empty chair. "The legion normally has two elected praetors. Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, was our other praetor until he disappeared last October."

"Last October? But Jason appeared on December?" Piper questioned. "I don't know, maybe Hera kept me until the time is right." Jason said about his thoughts.

Percy tried to calculate. He hadn't paid much attention to the calendar out in the wilderness, but Juno had mentioned that it was now June. "You mean he's been gone eight months, and you haven't replaced him?" "He might not be dead," Hazel said. "We haven't given up." Reyna grimaced.

"Thanks for not giving up." Jason said.

Percy got the feeling this guy Jason might've been more to her than just a colleague.

"Let's hope not," Piper mumbled to herself.

"Elections only happen in two ways," Reyna said. "Either the legion raises someone on a shield after a major success on the battlefield and we haven't had any major battles or we hold a ballot on the evening of June 24, at the Feast of Fortuna. That's in five days." Percy frowned. "You have a feast for tuna?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes; the old seaweed brain hasn't change a bit.

"Fortuna," Hazel corrected. "She's the goddess of luck. Whatever happens on her feast day can affect the entire rest of the year. She can grant the camp good luck or really bad luck."

"Fortuna, is the goddess Tyche. Fortuna's Greek counterpart," Annabeth explained since many people were confused.

Reyna and Hazel both glanced at the empty display stand, as if thinking about what was missing. A chill went down Percy's back. "The Feast of Fortune The gorgons mentioned that. So did Juno. They said the camp was going to be attacked on that day, something about a big bad goddess named Gaea, and an army, and Death being unleashed. You're telling me that day is this week?" Reyna's fingers tightened around the hilt of her dagger. "You will say nothing about that outside this room," she ordered. "I will not have you spreading more panic in the camp."

"So it's true," Percy said. "Do you know what's going to happen? Can we stop it?" Percy had just met these people. He wasn't sure he even liked Reyna. But he wanted to help. They were demigods, the same as him. They had the same enemies. Besides, Percy remembered what Juno had told him: it wasn't just this camp at risk. His old life, the gods, and the entire world might be destroyed. Whatever was coming down, it was huge.

Oh no. He will risk his life for anyone; his friends, family, strangers, and sometimes even his enemies. Annabeth thought.

"We've talked enough for now," Reyna said. "Hazel, take him to Temple Hill. Find Octavian. On the way you can answer Percy's questions. Tell him about the legion." "Yes, Reyna." Percy still had so many questions; his brain felt like it would melt. But Reyna made it clear the audience was over. She sheathed her dagger. The metal dogs stood and growled, inching toward Percy. "Good luck with the augury, Percy Jackson," she said. "If Octavian lets you live, perhaps we can compare notes about your past."

"That's it, for now." Jason announced. Annabeth glare at Jason as it was saying what will Octavian do to Percy? 


	4. Chapter 4

THE SON OF NEPTUNE

ON THE WAY OUT OF CAMP, Hazel bought him an espresso drink and a cherry muffin from Bombilo the two-headed coffee merchant.

The campers blinked "A two-headed coffee merchant? That's bizarre!" Some campers muttered "Argus has hundred eyes, what's so weird?" Annabeth hissed.

"But, they have unicorns!" Connor pleaded "But we have more nature spirits." Annabeth glared at him.

"I like pegasi!" Clovis said so sudden the campers were startled.

"Shut up, Clovis! Go back to bed!" Clarisse La Rue threw a pebble at him. Somehow, Clovis managed to dodge it and slammed his head into his cabin mate's lap and passed out.

"Now may I continue?" Lou asked.

Percy inhaled the muffin. The coffee was great. Now, Percy thought, if he could just get a shower, a change of clothes, and some sleep, he'd be golden. Maybe even Imperial golden.

"He's a human, not a rare type of metal " someone mumbled but Annabeth just shook her head and said "Percy is such a Seaweed Brain. He always is like that."

He watched a bunch of kids in swimsuits and towels head into a building that had steam coming out of a row of chimneys. Laughter and watery sounds echoed from inside, like it was an indoor pool Percy's kind of place.

Some of the camper were discussing about it.

"That sounds like fun!"

"I'd like a hard-boiled egg!"

"Hey, I'll throw you an egg!"

"No, I'll sell you an egg!"

"This is an indoor pool, not a hot spring!"

"Ahem! May I read now?" Lou asked impatiently.

"Bath house," Hazel said. "We'll get you in there before dinner, hopefully. You haven't lived until you've had a Roman bath." Percy sighed with anticipation.

"I think I am living, thank you very much!" Andro hissed. "It's an expression!" Someone in the crowd shouted back. "I know!" She grumbled.

As they approached the front gate, the barracks got bigger and nicer. Even the ghosts looked better with fancier armor and shinier auras. Percy tried to decipher the banners and symbols hanging in front of the buildings.

"Which one is mine?" Alex Anderson (My OC) of the Apollo cabin asked.

"Shh! I need to listen!" Annabeth grumbled.

"Can I please read?" Lou crossed her arms.

"You guys are divided into different cabins?" he asked.

"Sort of." Hazel ducked as a kid riding a giant eagle swooped overhead.

The campers laughed "A giant eagle swooped down!" Leo copied "A giant eagle !"

"Shut up, Repair Boy! We've got it!" Piper shouted.

"We have five cohorts of about forty kids each. Each cohort is divided into barracks of ten like roommates, kind of."

Percy had never been great at math, but he tried to multiply.

"Me too, I'm not good either!" Nico said.

"You're telling me there's two hundred kids at camp?"

"Roughly."

"And all of them are children of the gods? The gods have been busy."

"Wow! But aren't Roman gods more discipline and have lesser contact with mortals?" Rachel asked.

"Well, perhaps not all are Olympians." Annabeth explained.

Hazel laughed. "Not all of them are children of major gods. There are hundreds of minor Roman gods. Plus, a lot of the campers are legacies second or third generation. Maybe their parents were demigods. Or their grandparents."

"That, too, is possible but can they live long enough?" Annabeth thought and looked at Chiron.

"It is possible, child. Remember that some of them are now famous people." Chiron stroked his beard.

Percy blinked. "Children of demigods?"

"Why? Does that surprise you?"

"Yes, it does!" a few people said in union.

"No, it doesn't anymore!" some other campers said.

Percy wasn't sure. The last few weeks he'd been so worried about surviving day to day. The idea of living long enough to be an adult and have kids of his own that seemed like an impossible dream.

"It's possible!" Annabeth said.

"Annabeth, you're talking to a book, again!" Malcolm warned.

"These Legos "

"Legos? He said 'Legos'?" Connor and Travis laughed so loud the campers looked at them awkwardly.

"Uh, sorry. You can continue, Lou." They muttered.

"Legacies," Hazel corrected.

"They have powers like a demigod?"

"Sometimes. Sometimes not. But they can be trained. All the best Roman generals and emperors you know, they all claimed to be descended from gods. Most of the time, they were telling the truth. The camp augur we're going to meet, Octavian, he's a legacy, descendant of Apollo. He's got the gift of prophecy, supposedly."

"Gift of prophecy?" Rachel raised an eyebrow.

"Supposedly?" Annabeth, too, raised an eyebrow.

"Supposedly?"

Hazel made a sour face. "You'll see."

That didn't make Percy feel so great, if this dude Octavian had Percy's fate in his hands.

"So the divisions," he asked, "the cohorts, whatever you're divided according to who your godly parent is?"

Hazel stared at him. "What a horrible idea! No, the officers decide where to assign recruits. If we were divided according to god, the cohorts would be all uneven. I'd be alone."

"What? We're all like this!" The campers all shouted in union.

"I'm alone!" Nico and Jason said.

Percy felt a twinge of sadness, like he'd been in that situation. "Why? What's your ancestry?"

Before she could answer, someone behind them yelled, "Wait!"

A ghost ran toward them an old man with a medicine-ball belly and toga so long he kept tripping on it. He caught up to them and gasped for air, his purple aura flickering around him.

"This is him?" the ghost panted. "A new recruit for the Fifth, perhaps?"

"Vitellius," Hazel said, "we're sort of in a hurry."

The ghost scowled at Percy and walked around him, inspecting him like a used car. "I don't know," he grumbled. "We need only the best for the cohort. Does he have all his teeth? Can he fight? Does he clean stables?"

"Yes, yes, and no," Percy said.

"I thought Percy always clean the stables," said Travis "Since he's good with horses,"

"I thought you are the one clean the stables," said Jake "with all those pranks."

"Connor and Travis remember your duties for tomorrow," Chiron ordered, "That's what you get after you prank on the Demeter cabin."

The brothers groaned. "Busted!" Katie chided.

"Who are you?"

"Percy, this is Vitellius." Hazel's expression said: Just humor him. "He's one of our Lares; takes an interest in new recruits."

On a nearby porch, other ghosts snickered as Vitellius paced back and forth, tripping over his toga and hiking up his sword belt.

"Yes," Vitellius said, "back in Caesar's day that's Julius Caesar, mind you the Fifth Cohort was something! Twelfth Legion Fulminata, pride of Rome! But these days? Disgraceful what we've come to. Look at Hazel here, using a spatha. Ridiculous weapon for a Roman legionnaire that's for cavalry! And you, boy you smell like a Greek sewer.

"Sewer? Did that ghost said we smell like SEWER!" Drew shouted.

"Clam down Drew, that's a Lares, a very old one ," Piper explained.

Haven't you had a bath?"

"I've been a little busy fighting gorgons," Percy said. "Vitellius," Hazel interrupted, "we've got to get Percy's augury before he can join. Why don't you check on Frank? He's in the armory doing inventory. You know how much he values your help." The ghost's furry purple eyebrows shot up. "Mars Almighty! They let the probation check the armor? We'll be ruined!"

He stumbled off down the street, stopping every few feet to pick up his sword or rearrange his toga.

"O-h-h-kay," Percy said.

"Sorry," Hazel said. "He's eccentric, but he's one of the oldest Lares. Been around since the legion was founded."

"He called the legion Fulminata?" Percy said.

"'Armed with Lightning,'" Hazel translated. "That's our motto. The Twelfth Legion was around for the entire Roman Empire. When Rome fell, a lot of legions just disappeared. We went underground, acting on secret orders from Jupiter himself: stay alive, recruit demigods and their children, keep Rome going. We've been doing that ever since, moving around to wherever Roman influence was strongest. The last few centuries, we've been in America."

As bizarre as that sounded, Percy had no trouble believing it. In fact, it sounded familiar, like something he'd always known.

"We all do!" the campers said.

"And you're in the Fifth Cohort," he guessed, "which maybe isn't the most popular?"

Hazel scowled. "Yeah. I joined up last September."

"So just a few weeks before that guy Jason disappeared."

Percy knew he'd hit a sore spot. Hazel looked down. She was silent long enough to count every paving stone.

"Come on," she said at last. "I'll show you my favourite view."

They stopped outside the main gates. The fort was situated on the highest point in the valley, so they could see pretty much everything.

"That must be really amazing." Katie agreed.

The road led down to the river and divided. One path led south across a bridge, up to the hill with all the temples. The other road led north into the city, a miniature version of Ancient Rome. Unlike the military camp, the city looked chaotic and colorful, with buildings crowded together at haphazard angles. Even from this far away, Percy could see people gathered in the plaza, shoppers milling around an open-air market, parents with kids playing in the parks.

"You've got families here?" he asked.

"In the city, absolutely," Hazel said. "When you're accepted into the legion, you do ten years of service. After that, you can muster out whenever you want. Most demigods go into the mortal world. But for some well, it's pretty dangerous out there. This valley is a sanctuary. You can go to college in the city, get married, have kids, retire when you get old. It's the only safe place on earth for people like us. So yeah, a lot of veterans make their homes there, under the protection of the legion." Adult demigods. Demigods who could live without fear, get married, raise a family. Percy couldn't quite wrap his mind around that. It seemed too good to be true.

"But if this valley is attacked?"

Hazel pursed her lips. "We have defences. The borders are magical. But our strength isn't what it used to be. Lately, the monster attacks have been increasing. What you said about the gorgons not dying we've noticed that too, with other monsters."

"I agree the monsters are hard to kill these days," Will said.

"Do you know what's causing it?" Hazel looked away. Percy could tell that she was holding something back something she wasn't supposed to say.

Please don't say Hazel, anything you do please don't say it. Nico thought.

"It's it's complicated," she said. "My brother says Death isn't "

She said it.

She was interrupted by an elephant.

Someone behind them shouted, "Make way!"

"An elephant?" Leo's eyes widen.

Hazel dragged Percy out of the road as a demigod rode past on a full-grown pachyderm covered in black Kevlar armor. The word elephant was printed on the side of his armor, which seemed a little obvious to Percy.

The elephant thundered down the road and turned north, heading toward a big open field where some fortifications were under construction.

Percy spit dust out of his mouth.

"What the ?"

"Elephant," Hazel explained.

"Yeah, I read the sign. Why do you have an elephant in a bulletproof vest?"

"War games tonight," Hazel said. "That's Hannibal. If we didn't include him, he'd get upset."

"We can't have that."

Same old seaweed brain, Annabeth thought.

Hazel laughed. It was hard to believe she'd looked so moody a moment ago. Percy wondered what she'd been about to say. She had a brother.

Nico gulped.

Yet she had claimed she'd be alone if the camp sorted her by her godly parent.

Percy couldn't figure her out. She seemed nice and easy going, mature for somebody who couldn't have been more than thirteen. But she also seemed to be hiding a deep sadness, like she felt guilty about something.

"I wonder why?" Annabeth said. You don't want to know, Nico thought to himself.

Hazel pointed south across the river. Dark clouds were gathering over Temple Hill. Red flashes of lightning washed the monuments in blood-colored light. "Octavian is busy," Hazel said. "We'd better get over there."

On the way, they passed some goat-legged guys hanging out on the side of the road.

"Satyr, I guess?" Grover said wondering how roman satyr looks like.

"Hazel!" one of them cried.

He trotted over with a big grin on his face. He wore a faded Hawaiian shirt and nothing for pants except thick brown goat fur. His massive Afro jiggled. His eyes were hidden behind little round rainbow tinted glasses. He held a cardboard sign that read: WILL WORK SING TALK go away for denarii.

"Hi, Don," Hazel said. "Sorry, we don't have time "

"Oh, that's cool! That's cool!" Don trotted along with them. "Hey, this guy's new!" He grinned at Percy. "Do you have three denarii for the bus? Because I left my wallet at home, and I've got to get to work, and "

"Don," Hazel chided. "Fauns don't have wallets. Or jobs. Or homes. And we don't have buses."

"They don't?" Grover found this extra weird "I'm offended!"

"Right," he said cheerfully, "but do you have denarii?"

"Your name is Don the Faun?" Percy asked.

"Don the Faun!" The campers snickered.

"Yeah. So?"

"Nothing." Percy tried to keep a straight face. "Why don't fauns have jobs? Shouldn't they work for the camp?"

Don bleated. "Fauns! Work for the camp! Hilarious!"

"But we enjoy working here," Grover made a sour face "its fun!"

"You recruit demigods, find Pan sort-of, play reed pipes and save nature, that's fun?" Connor and Travis asked.

"To us it is!"

"Fauns are, um, free spirits," Hazel explained. "They hang out here because, well, it's a safe place to hang out and beg. We tolerate them, but "

"Oh, Hazel is awesome," Don said. "She's so nice! All the other campers are like, 'Go away, Don.' But she's like, 'Please go away, Don.' I love her!"

The faun seemed harmless, but Percy still found him unsettling. He couldn't shake the feeling that fauns should be more than just homeless guys begging for denarii. Don looked at the ground in front of them and gasped. "Score!"

He reached for something, but Hazel screamed, "Don, no!"

"What did he mean 'score'?" Rachel asked.

"He probably found a coin or something," Andro guessed.

She pushed him out of the way and snatched up a small shiny object. Percy caught a glimpse of it before Hazel slipped it into her pocket. He could have sworn it was a diamond.

Drew's eyes widen which made her look like an owl with make-up "Oh, I want one!"

You do not want the ones Hazel made! Nico thought.

"Come on, Hazel," Don complained. "I could've bought a year's worth of doughnuts with that!"

"Don, please," Hazel said. "Go away."

She sounded shaken, like she'd just saved Don from a charging bulletproof elephant.

The campers laughed "A charging bulletproof elephant! That's hilarious!"

"Shh, can I read?" Lou hissed.

The faun sighed. "Aw, I can't stay mad at you. But I swear, it's like you're good luck. Every time you walk by "

She's not good luck, Don! Nico thought.

"Good-bye, Don," Hazel said quickly.

"Let's go, Percy."

She started jogging. Percy had to sprint to catch up.

"What was that about?" Percy asked. "That diamond in the road "

"Please," she said. "Don't ask."

They walked in uneasy silence the rest of the way to Temple Hill. A crooked stone path led past a crazy assortment of tiny altars and massive domed vaults. Statues of gods seemed to follow Percy with their eyes.

"Creepy feeling," Jason said "Just like the statue of Jup I mean Zeus in my cabin."

Hazel pointed out the Temple of Bellona. "Goddess of war," she said. "That's Reyna's mom." Then they passed a massive red crypt decorated with human skulls on iron spikes.

"Hmm, looks a bit like our cabin." Clarisse glanced at her cabin along with the rest of the campers.

"Please tell me we're not going in there," Percy said.

Hazel shook her head. "That's the Temple of Mars Ultor."

"Mars is the planet, right?" One of the Ares kids asked.

"Yes and no. That's Ares' Roman form," Annabeth answered.

"Mars ... Ares, the war god?"

"That's his Greek name," Hazel said. "But, yeah, same guy. Ultor means 'the Avenger.' He's the second-most important god of Rome."

"Then who is the first?" Selene asked.

"It's pretty obvious that it's Zeus!" Andro rolled her eyes.

"Mars the Avenger," Nico said "Sounds like that Egyptian god, Horus the Avenger."

"How did you know about that?" Annabeth demanded.

"Uh, I travel a lot and listen a lot," Nico stammered.

"Yeah right!" Andro snorted.

Percy wasn't thrilled to hear that. For some reason, just looking at the ugly red building made him feel angry.

"Hey! You beat our dad!" The Ares cabin shouted. "I'm gonna electrocute you!" Clarisse raised her spear.

"Percy, ah, isn't here, Clarisse!" Annabeth told her "Besides, it's years from now and he probably have anger issues."

He pointed toward the summit. Clouds swirled over the largest temple, a round pavilion with a ring of white columns supporting a domed roof. "I'm guessing that's Zeus uh, I mean, Jupiter's? That's where we're heading?"

"Yeah." Hazel sounded edgy. "Octavian reads auguries there the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus."

Percy had to think about it, but the Latin words clicked into English.

"What does it mean?" Piper glanced at Jason.

"It means 'Jupiter the best and the greatest'," Jason translated.

"Jupiter the best and the greatest?"

"Right."

"What's Neptune's title?" Percy asked. "The coolest and most awesome?"

The camper snickered "As if you are!" Someone shouted back.

"Um, not quite." Hazel gestured to a small blue building the size of a tool shed. A cobweb-covered trident was nailed above the door.

Percy peeked inside. On a small altar sat a bowl with three dried-up, moldy apples.

His heart sank. "Popular place."

"I'm sorry, Percy," Hazel said. "It's just Romans were always scared of the sea. They only used ships if they had to. Even in modern times, having a child of Neptune around has always been a bad omen. The last time one joined the legion well, it was 1906, when Camp Jupiter was located across the bay in San Francisco. There was this huge earthquake "

"You're telling me a child of Neptune caused that?"

"So they say." Hazel looked apologetic.

"Anyway Romans fear Neptune, but they don't love him much." Percy stared at the cobwebs on the trident. Great, he thought. Even if he joined the camp, he would never be loved. His best hope was to be scary to his new campmates. Maybe if he did really well, they'd give him some moldy apples.

"Poor Percy," Clovis muttered in his sleep "I hate moldy apples!"

Still standing at Neptune's altar, he felt something stirring inside him, like waves rippling through his veins.

He reached in his backpack and dug out the last bit of food from his trip a stale bagel. It wasn't much, but he set it on the altar.

"Hey uh, Dad." He felt pretty stupid talking to a bowl of fruit. "If you can hear me, help me out, okay? Give me my memory back. Tell me tell me what to do."

His voice cracked. He hadn't meant to get emotional, but he was exhausted and scared, and he'd been lost for so long, he would've given anything for some guidance. He wanted to know something about his life for sure, without grabbing for missing memories.

Hazel put her hand on his shoulder.

"It'll be okay. You're here now. You're one of us." He felt awkward, depending on an eighth-grade girl he barely knew for comfort, but he was glad she was there.

Above them, thunder rumbled. Red lightning lit up the hill.

"Octavian's almost done," Hazel said.

"Let's go."

Compared to Neptune's tool shed, Jupiter's temple was definitely optimus and maximus. The marble floor was etched with fancy mosaics and Latin inscriptions. Sixty feet above, the domed ceiling sparkled gold. The whole temple was open to the wind.

"Looks nice but what happens if it rains?" someone asked but no one answered.

In the centre stood a marble altar, where a kid in a toga was doing some sort of ritual in front of a massive golden statue of the big dude himself: Jupiter the sky god, dressed in a silk XXXL purple toga, holding a lightning bolt.

"It doesn't look like that," Percy muttered.

"What?" Hazel asked.

"The master bolt," Percy said.

"How ?" Butch asked.

"He was once suspected to be the lightning thief so he returned the master bolt to Zeus from the real thief." Annabeth explained.

"Oh."

"What are you talking about?"

"I " Percy frowned. For a second, he'd thought he remembered something. Now it was gone. "Nothing, I guess."

The kid at the altar raised his hands. More red lightning flashed in the sky, shaking the temple. Then he put his hands down, and the rumbling stopped. The clouds turned from gray to white and broke apart. A pretty impressive trick, considering the kid didn't look like much. He was tall and skinny, with straw-colored hair, oversized jeans, a baggy T-shirt, and a drooping toga. He looked like a scarecrow wearing a bed sheet.

The camper laughed.

"What's he doing?" Percy murmured.

The guy in the toga turned. He had a crooked smile and a slightly crazy look in his eyes,

The camper gulped. "Who is he?"

"I think he's Octavian."

like he'd just been playing an intense video game. In one hand he held a knife. In the other hand was something like a dead animal. That didn't make him look any less crazy.

"That's not really nice of him," Katie mumbled.

"Percy," Hazel said, "this is Octavian."

"The graecus!" Octavian announced.

"How interesting."

"Uh, hi," Percy said. "Are you killing small animals?"

"I hope he isn't!" Rachel said.

Octavian looked at the fuzzy thing in his hand and laughed. "No, no. Once upon a time, yes. We used to read the will of the gods by examining animal guts chickens, goats, that sort of thing. Nowadays, we use these."

"Use what?" Piper frowned.

He tossed the fuzzy thing to Percy. It was a disemboweled teddy bear.

"Poor teddy bear!" Clovis sniffed.

Then Percy noticed that there was a whole pile of mutilated stuffed animals at the foot of Jupiter's statue.

"Seriously?" Percy asked.

"Super poor teddy bears!" Clovis cried.

Octavian stepped off the dais. He was probably about eighteen, but so skinny and sickly pale, he could've passed for younger.

At first he looked harmless, but as he got closer, Percy wasn't so sure. Octavian's eyes glittered with harsh curiosity, like he might gut Percy just as easily as a teddy bear if he thought he could learn something from it.

Annabeth gulped "He won't, right Jason?"

Jason shrugged.

Octavian narrowed his eyes. "You seem nervous."

"You remind me of someone," Percy said. "I can't remember who." "Possibly my namesake, Octavian Augustus Caesar. Everyone says I bear a remarkable resemblance."

"Pfft, you two are different!" Nico snorted. Annabeth and Andro raised and eye brow.

Percy didn't think that was it, but he couldn't pin down the memory. "Why did you call me 'the Greek'?"

"I saw it in the auguries." Octavian waved his knife at the pile of stuffing on the altar. "The message said: The Greek hasarrived.

Wow, he's good. Rachel thought.

Or possibly: The goose has cried.

Or not, Rachel thought, I can do better than that.

I'm thinking the first interpretation is correct. You seek to join the legion?"

Hazel spoke for him. She told Octavian everything that had happened since they met at the tunnel the gorgons, the fight at the river, the appearance of Juno, their conversation with Reyna.

When she mentioned Juno, Octavian looked surprised.

"Juno," he mused. "We call her Juno Moneta. Juno the Warner. She appears in times of crisis, to counsel Rome about great threats."

He glanced at Percy, as if to say: like mysterious Greeks, for instance.

"Hey!"

"I hear the Feast of Fortuna is this week," Percy said. "The gorgons warned there'd be an invasion on that day. Did you see that in your stuffing?"

"Sadly, no." Octavian sighed. "The will of the gods is hard to discern. And these days, my vision is even darker."

"Don't you have I don't know," Percy said, "an oracle or something?"

"An oracle!" Octavian smiled. "What a cute idea. No, I'm afraid we're fresh out of oracles.

"Uh, why?" Rachel raised an eye brow.

Now, if we'd gone questing for the Sibylline books, like I recommended "

"Nice book," Rachel said "Very great one!"

"The Siba-what?" Percy asked.

"Books of prophecy," Hazel said, "which Octavian is obsessed with. Romans used to consult them when disasters happened. Most people believe they burned up when Rome fell."

"Some people believe that," Octavian corrected. "Unfortunately our present leadership won't authorize a quest to look for them "

"Because Reyna isn't stupid," Hazel said. " so we have only a few remaining scraps from the books," Octavian continued.

"A few mysterious predictions, like these." He nodded to the inscriptions on the marble floor. Percy stared at the lines of words, not really expecting to understand them. He almost choked.

"That one." He pointed, translating as he read aloud: "Seven half-bloods shall answerthe call. To storm or fire the worldmust fall "

"It's the great prophecy!" Annabeth glanced at Jason "No wonder, you knew about it."

"Yes, Octavian always recite it, when I'm around."

"Yes, yes." Octavian finished it without looking: "An oath to keep with a finalbreath and foes bear arms to the Doorsof Death."

"I I know that one." Percy thought thunder was shaking the temple again. Then he realized his whole body was trembling. "That's important."

Octavian arched an eyebrow. "Of course it's important. We call it the Prophecy of Seven, but it's several thousand years old.

"It is?" Rachel raised her eye brow.

Annabeth shrugged and Chiron kept silence.

We don't know what it means. Every time someone tries to interpret it Well, Hazel can tell you. Bad things happen."

Hazel glared at him. "Just read the augury for Percy. Can he join the legion or not?"

Percy could almost see Octavian's mind working, calculating whether or not Percy would be useful. He held out his hand for Percy's backpack. "That's a beautiful specimen. May I?"

"What specimen?" Nico asked.

Percy didn't understand what he meant, but Octavian snatched the Bargain Mart panda pillow that was sticking out of the top of his pack. It was just a silly stuffed toy, but Percy had carried it a long way. He was kind of fond of it.

"Percy is a Teddy- lover like us!" Clovis clapped his hands.

Octavian turned toward the altar and raised his knife.

"Hey!" Percy protested.

"No !" Clovis screamed.

Octavian slashed open the panda's belly and poured its stuffing over the altar.

The Hypnos cabin cried loudly.

He tossed the panda carcass aside, muttered a few words over the fluff, and turned with a big smile on his face. "Good news!" he said. "Percy may join the legion. We'll assign him a cohort at evening muster. Tell Reyna that I approve."

Hazel's shoulders relaxed. "Uh great. Come on, Percy."

"Oh, and Hazel," Octavian said. "I'm happy to welcome Percy into the legion. But when the election for praetor comes up, I hope you'll remember "

"Jason isn't dead," Hazel snapped.

"Thank for reminding," Jason said.

"You're the augur. You're supposed to be looking for him!"

"Oh, I am!" Octavian pointed at the pile of gutted stuffed animals. "I consult the gods every day! Alas, after eight months, I've found nothing. Of course, I'm still looking. But if Jason doesn't return by the Feast of Fortuna, we must act. We can't have a power vacuum any longer. I hope you'll support me for praetor. It would mean so much to me."

Hazel clenched her fists. "Me. Support. You?"

Octavian took off his toga, setting it and his knife on the altar. Percy noticed seven lines on Octavian's arm seven years of camp, Percy guessed. Octavian's mark was a harp, the symbol of Apollo.

"I thought it was a lyre," Will said.

"After all," Octavian told Hazel, "I might be able to help you. It would be a shame if those awful rumors about you kept circulating or, gods forbid, if they turned out to be true."

Percy slipped his hand into his pocket and grabbed his pen. This guy was blackmailing Hazel. That was obvious. One sign from Hazel, and Percy was ready to bust out Riptide and see how Octavian liked being at the other end of a blade.

"Gut him dead Percy!" Rachel cheered.

Everyone looked at her, Rachel sank into her seat.

Hazel took a deep breath. Her knuckles were white. "I'll think about it."

"Excellent," Octavian said. "By the way, your brother is here."

Oh no, I need to go now, Nico thought.

"Andro, I need to go, excuse me." Nico said.

"No, the chapter is going to end," Andro protested, "Wait for a while,"

"But I ,"

Andro glared at him, which even the bravest person was afraid.

Nico sat down.

Hazel stiffened. "My brother? Why?" Octavian shrugged. "Why does your brother do anything?

HEY! Nico thought.

He's waiting for you at your father's shrine. Just ah, don't invite him to stay too long. He has a disturbing effect on the others.

HEY! Nico thought, again.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to keep searching for our poor lost friend, Jason. Nice to meet you, Percy."

Hazel stormed out of the pavilion, and Percy followed. He was sure he'd never been so glad to leave a temple in his life. As Hazel marched down the hill, she cursed in Latin. Percy didn't understand all of it, but he got son of a gorgon, power hungrysnake, and a few choice suggestions about where Octavian could stick his knife.

Wow, since when she learns those mean words? Nico thought.

"I hate that guy," she muttered in English. "If I had my way "

"He won't really get elected praetor, will he?" Percy asked.

"I wish I could be certain. Octavian has a lot of friends, most of them bought.

The rest of the campers are afraid of him."

"Not me!" Jason protested.

"Afraid of that skinny little guy?"

"Don't underestimate him. Reyna's not so bad by herself, but if Octavian shares her power " Hazel shuddered. "Let's go see my brother. He'll want to meet you."

"Andro I really need to go, can you stop blocking the way!" Nico said.

"I'm not moving, so do you!"

"Quiet!" Lou hissed.

Percy didn't argue. He wanted to meet this mysterious brother, maybe learn something about Hazel's background who her dad was, what secret she was hiding. Percy couldn't believe she'd done anything to be guilty about. She seemed too nice. But Octavian had acted like he had some first-class dirt on her.

Hazel led Percy to a black crypt built into the side of the hill. Standing in front was a teenage boy in black jeans and an aviator jacket.

The campers looked at Nico "What?"

"Hey," Hazel called. "I've brought a friend."

The boy turned. Percy had another one of those weird flashes: like this was somebody he should know.

They looked at him, again.

The kid was almost as pale as Octavian, but with dark eyes and messy black hair. He didn't look anything like Hazel. He wore a silver skull ring, a chain for a belt, and a black T-shirt with skull designs. At his side hung a pure-black sword.

"It this me or this guy looked very similar?" Andro asked glancing at Nico.

For a microsecond when he saw Percy, the boy seemed shocked panicked even, like he'd been caught in a searchlight.

"This is Percy Jackson," Hazel said. "He's a good guy. Percy, this is my brother, the son of Pluto."

Right, I can shadow travel. Nico thought. "Hey, where do you think you're going?" Andro grabbed his wrist. "Nowhere," he said.

The boy regained his composure and held out his hand. "Pleased to meet you," he said. "I'm Nico Di Angelo."

"NICO DI ANGELO, what are in world you doing there?" Annabeth shouted.

"I can explain!"

So, the end for now! Ah, I love cliff hangers! Reviews! Muwhahahahahaha!  



	5. Chapter 5

THE SON OF NEPTUNE I can explain!"

"EXPLAIN! You ended up in Camp Jupiter! You had a sister there, and you didn't tell us anything possible place where Percy's at!" Annabeth scolded.

"I can't interfere with Percy's quest; he must regain his memory himself." Nico explained.

Annabeth was speechless for a while; the stupid ghost boy did have some senses. "If so, how do you know about Camp Jupiter?"

"I found some dead roman demigods in the underworld," Nico explained, "They told me about Camp Jupiter."

"And you sister?"

Nico hesitated; he knew this day was going to happen. Annabeth had her dagger at his throat; the campers tied him up on his seat, not letting him escape. He's dead meat, literally. Should he just say he met her at camp? No, this going make things even worst, he need to tell them the truth; at least the basic.

"Hazel was born just like me, during World War II," Nico said, "She died when she was just thirteen."

"Go on, Death Boy" Andro demanded.

Nico hesitated, "I learnt that The Doors of Death had been opened, so I decided to take Bianca "

Annabeth soften on her grip on her dagger. She can't help for felling pity for the boy's past.

"But Bianca had reborn without telling me," tears started to tickers on his checks, "I found Hazel my other sister and learnt her past, I thought she deserved another chance so I ,"

"So you used The Doors of Death for yourself without telling your father and broke the rule of life and death?"

Nico nodded. Annabeth sheathed her dagger, untied Nico ropes and let him go. Andro held his hands and said "I'm sorry for pushing you, um, again."

"I'm sorry too, Nico but why didn't you tell us? You know we're worried of him." Annabeth patted his shoulder. "Like I said, we can't interfere with his quest and stuff. I wanted to but I just can't." Nico looked away. "I-I need to see Hazel tomorrow, please, I have got to go." He stood up and wanted to leave.

"Nico, are you sure it's safe? What if Gaia plot something that won't be good for you and the others?" Annabeth stopped him. "Annabeth is right, Nico. It won't be safe," Chiron warned. "But I have to!" Nico protested.

"Maybe you could go for a while," Chiron continued "But you should take someone with you just to be safe."

"No, Hazel, she !" He stopped himself "I just can't! The others don't know about Camp Half-Blood yet!"

"Very well," Chiron changed the subject "Now, Cabin 19 it's your turn."

V Hazel

HAZEL FELT LIKE SHE'D JUST INTRODUCED two nuclear bombs. Nowshe was waiting to see which one explodedfirst.

Until that morning, her brother Nico had been the most powerful demigod she knew.

Thank you very much, Hazel. Nico thought silently while the other camper were gagging and coughing.

The others at Camp Jupiter saw him as a travelling oddball, about as harmless as the fauns.

Everyone raised an eyebrow at Nico; he just sank down to his seat.

Hazel knew better. She hadn't grown up with Nico, hadn't even known him very long. But she knew Nico was more dangerous than Reyna, or Octavian, or maybe even Jason.

"Hey!" Jason protested.

Then she'd met Percy.

"Hey!" both Jason and Nico said.

At first, when she saw him stumbling up the highway with the old lady in his arms, Hazel had thought he might be a god in disguise.

"A god?" Leo asked. "Is he that powerful?"

"You'll see," Annabeth answered.

Even though he was beat up, dirty, and stooped with exhaustion, he'd had an aura of power. He had the good looks of a Roman god, with sea-green eyes and windblown black hair.

A lot of male campers cough especially the Aphrodite's and the Apollo's. Some girls thought dreamily about Percy while Annabeth tighten on her danger. The huntress just rolled their eyes.

She'd ordered Frank not to fire on, him. She thought the gods might be testing them. She'd heard myths like that: a kid with an old lady begs for shelter, and when the rude mortals refuse boom, they get turned into banana slugs.

"Banana Slugs?" Andro raised an eyebrow.

Then Percy had controlled the river and destroyed the gorgons. He'd turned a pen into a bronze sword. He'd stirred up the whole camp with talk about the graecus.

A son of the sea god...

Many people roll their eyes it's too obvious that Percy is a son of the sea god.

Long ago, Hazel had been told that a descendant of Neptune would save her. But could Percy really take away her curse? It seemed too much to hope for. Percy and Nico shook hands. They studied each other warily, and Hazel fought the urge to run. If these two busted out the magic swords, things could get ugly.

"You should see them training in the arena," Annabeth explained then she looked at Nico.

Nico didn't appear scary. He was skinny and sloppy in his rumpled black clothes. His hair, as always, looked like he'd just rolled out of bed.

"Wait What? I combed my hair!" Nico protested. "Guys, did she describe me wrongly or correctly?"

"I'd say she described you perfectly!" Andro and the other campers laughed so hard he wanted to run away.

Hazel remembered when she'd met him. The first time she'd seen him draw that black sword of his, she'd almost laughed. The way he called it "Stygian iron," all serious-like he'd looked ridiculous.

"What?"

"Yeah ," Andro nodded

"Thank you!"

" Hazel's right. Not you, Death Boy."

This scrawny white boy was no fighter.

"He can't beat me!" Annabeth, Clarisse and Andro pointed out.

She certainly hadn't believed they were related. She had changed her mind about that quick enough.

Percy scowled. "I I know you."

Nico raised his eyebrows. "Do you?" He looked at Hazel for explanation.

"He does." Annabeth growled.

Hazel hesitated. Something about her brother's reaction wasn't right. He was trying hard to act casual, but when he had first seen Percy, Hazel had noticed his momentary look of panic. Nico already knew Percy. She was sure of it. Why was he pretending otherwise?

"You're a really bad actor,"

Hazel forced herself to speak. "Um Percy's lost his memory." She told her brother what had happened since Percy had arrived at the gates.

"So, Nico " she continued carefully, "I thought you know, you travel all over. Maybe you've met demigods like Percy before, or..."

"He lived with us at the same camp," Annabeth said "He's one of us."

Nico was touched. "You look like you're going to cry." Andro informed him.

"I did not!" His expression turned dark and red.

Nico's expression turned as dark as Tartarus. Hazel didn't understand why, but she got the message: Drop it.

"This story about Gaia's army," Nico said. "You warned Reyna?"

Percy nodded. "Who is Gaia, anyway?"

Hazel's mouth went dry. Just hearing that name It was all she could do to keep her knees from buckling. She remembered a woman's soft sleepy voice, a glowing cave, and feeling her lungs fill with black oil.

"She's the earth goddess." Nico glanced at the ground as if it might be listening. "The oldest goddess of all. She's in a deep sleep most of the time, but she hates the gods and their children."

"Mother Earth is evil?" Percy asked.

"Yep!"

"Very," Nico said gravely. "She convinced her son, the Titan Kronos um, I mean, Saturn to kill his dad, Uranus, and take over the world. The Titans ruled for a long time. Then the Titans' children, the Olympian gods, overthrew them."

"That story seems familiar," Percy sounded surprised, like an old memory had partially surfaced. "But I don't think I ever heard the part about Gaea."

Nico shrugged. "She got mad when the gods took over. She took a new husband Tartarus, the spirit of the abyss and gave birth to a race of giants. They tried to destroy Mount Olympus, but the gods finally beat them. At least the first time."

"The first time? What do you mean?" Lou asked.

"The first time?" Percy repeated.

Nico glanced at Hazel. He probably wasn't meaning to make her feel guilty, but she couldn't help it. If Percy knew the truth about her, and the horrible things she'd done

"Last summer," Nico continued, "Saturn tried to make a comeback. There was a second Titan war. The Romans at

Camp Jupiter stormed his headquarters on Mount Othrys, across the bay, and destroyed his throne. Saturn disappeared "

"He didn't disappear! Percy !" Annabeth protested.

"We know!"

He hesitated, watching Percy's face. Hazel got the feeling her brother was nervous that more of Percy's memory might come back.

"Um, anyway," Nico continued, "Saturn probably faded back to the abyss. We all thought the war was over. Now it looks like the Titans' defeat stirred up Gaea. She's starting to wake. I've heard reports of giants being reborn. If they mean to challenge the gods again, they'll probably start by destroying the demigods. "

"You've told Reyna this?" Percy asked.

"Of course." Nico's jaw tensed. "The Romans don't trust me. That's why I was hoping she'd listen to you. Children of Pluto well, no offense, but they think we're even worse than children of Neptune. We're bad luck."

"It's truth." Connor said.

"Hey!"

"They let Hazel stay here," Percy noted.

"That's different," Nico said.

"Why?"

"Percy," Hazel cut in, "look, the giants aren't the worst problem. Even ... even Gaea isn't the worst problem.

"It isn't?"

The thing you noticed about the gorgons, how they wouldn't die, that's our biggest worry."

"If the monsters don't die, her army will be stronger than ever," Nico pointed out.

She looked at Nico. She was getting dangerously close to her own secret now,

"What is her secret?" Andro asked.

"A secret will stay secret," Nico answered "I can't tell you."

but for some reason Hazel trusted Percy.

"Everyone can trust Percy, he a good friend." Grover pointed. The campers nodded.

Maybe because he was also an outsider, maybe because he'd saved Frank at the river. He deserved to know what they were facing.

"Nico and I," she said carefully, "we think that what's happening is Death isn't " Before she could finish, a shout came from down the hill.

Frank jogged toward them, wearing his jeans, purple camp shirt, and denim jacket. His hands were covered with grease from cleaning weapons.

As it did every time she saw Frank, Hazel's heart performed a little skip-beat tap-dance which really irritated her. Sure, he was a good friend one of the only people at camp who didn't treat her as if she had a contagious disease. But she didn't like him in that way.

He was three years older than she was, and he wasn't exactly Prince Charming, with that strange combination of baby face and bulky wrestler's body. He looked like a cuddly koala bear with muscles. The fact that everyone always tried to pair them, up the two biggest losers at camp! You guys are perfect for each other just made Hazel more determined not to like him.

"You shouldn't let people's thoughts effect you." Piper said.

But her heart wasn't with the program. It went nuts whenever Frank was around. She hadn't felt like that since ... well, since Sammy.

"Who's Sammy?" Leo asked.

Probably your great grandfather! Nico thought.

Stop it, she thought. You're here for one reason and it isn't to get a new boyfriend.

Besides, Frank didn't know her secret. If he knew, he wouldn't be so nice to her.

"Frank is nice " Nico mumbled.

He reached the shrine. "Hey, Nico "

"Frank." Nico smiled. He seemed to find Frank amusing, maybe because Frank was the only one at camp who wasn't uneasy around the children of Pluto.

Everyone looked at Nico, "What? He is funny!"

"Reyna sent me to get Percy," Frank said. "Did Octavian accept you?"

"Yeah," Percy said. "He slaughtered my panda."

"I like that panda ," Clovis mumbled but he felt asleep again.

"He Oh. The augury? Yeah, teddy bears must have nightmares about that guy.

"Us too!" The Hypnos cabin wailed in agony.

But you're in! We need to get you cleaned up before evening muster."

Hazel realized the sun was getting low over the hills. How had the day gone so fast? "You're right," she said. "We'd better "

"Frank," Nico interrupted, "why don't you take Percy down? Hazel and I will be along soon."

Uh-oh, Hazel thought. She tried not to look anxious.

"That's that's a good idea," she managed. "Go ahead, guys. We'll catch up."

Percy looked at Nico one more time, as though he was still trying to place a memory. "I'd like to talk with you some more. I can't shake the feeling "

"At least tell him you met him before." Annabeth glanced at Nico.

"Um, sorry?" Nico said.

Annabeth just rolled her eyes.

"Sure," Nico agreed. "Later. I'll be staying overnight."

"Exactly who allowed you to do that?" Annabeth asked. "Sneaking out is against the rules."

"Opps," Nico mumbled "like you know where I gone ."

"What?" Annabeth glared at him. Nico sank to his sit again.

"You will?" Hazel blurted. The campers were going to love that the son of Neptune and the son of Pluto arriving on the same day. Now all they needed was some black cats and broken mirrors.

"We aren't that bad luck right?" Nico mumbled

A random child of Tyche said , "Yes you are, I ever get any luck when you're around. You're ever worse than broken mirrors."

Nico sank to his seat, embarrassed.

"Go on, Percy," Nico said. "Settle in."

He turned to Hazel, and she got the sense that the worst part of her day was yet to come. "My sister and I need to talk."

"You know him, don't you," Hazel said.

"Yes, they are cousin," Annabeth grumbled.

"Can you cut it out?" Nico looked annoyed.

Annabeth just glared at him.

I better shut up. Nico thought.

They sat on the roof of Pluto's shrine, which was covered with bones and diamonds. As far as Hazel knew, the bones had always been there. The diamonds were her fault. If she sat anywhere too long, or just got anxious, they started popping up all around her like mushrooms after a rain. Several million dollars' worth of stones glittered on the roof, but fortunately the other campers wouldn't touch them. They knew better than to steal from temples especially Pluto's and the fauns never came up here.

"I will." Connor and Travis said.

"Oh no ," Nico backed up "You don't want touch her stone, diamonds, metals or anything."

"Not like their cursed or anything,"

"Huh, you don't want to know."

Hazel shuddered, remembering her close call with Don that afternoon. If she hadn't moved quickly and snatched that diamond off the road She didn't want to think about it. She didn't need another death on her conscience.

"Death ," Connor and Travis gulped.

Nico gave a sly smile, not saying a word.

Nico swung his feet like a little kid. His Stygian iron sword lay by his side, next to Hazel's spatha. He gazed across the valley, where construction crews were working in the Field of Mars, building fortifications for tonight's games.

"Percy Jackson." He said the name like an incantation.

"An incantation, you made him sound like a god." Jason noticed.

"Well, he is the saviour of Olympus," Nico mumbled.

"Hazel, I have to be careful what I say. Important things are at work here. Some secrets need to stay secret. You of all people you should understand that."

Hazel's cheeks felt hot. "But he's not like like me?"

"What is Hazel like?" Piper asked.

"You will find out later."

"No," Nico said. "I'm sorry I can't tell you more. I can't interfere. Percy has to find his own way at this camp."

He's doom! Jason thought.

"Is he dangerous?" she asked.

Nico managed a dry smile. "Very. To his enemies. But he's not a threat to Camp Jupiter. You can trust him."

"Like I trust you," Hazel said bitterly.

Nico twisted his skull ring. Around him, bones began to quiver as if they were trying to form a new skeleton. Whenever he got moody, Nico had that effect on the dead, kind of like Hazel's curse. Between them, they represented Pluto's two spheres of control: death and riches. Sometimes Hazel thought Nico had gotten the better end of the deal.

No, people will think you're a freak! Nico thought, I have been called a vampire once.

"Look, I know this is hard," Nico said.

"But you have a second chance. You can make things right."

"Nothing about this is right," Hazel said. "If they find out the truth about me "

"They won't," Nico promised. "They'll call a quest soon. They have to. You'll make me proud. Trust me, Bi "

Nico looked down, remembering his short time with Bianca and felt sorry for Hazel.

He caught himself, but Hazel knew what he'd almost called her: Bianca. Nico's real sister the one he'd grown up with. Nico might care about Hazel, but she'd never be Bianca. Hazel was the simply the next best thing Nico could manage a consolation prize from the Underworld.

I did not! Nico thought but it came out louder. "Excuse me did you say something?" Lou raised an eyebrow

"Uh, no."

"He's a liar." Andro rolled her eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said.

Hazel's mouth tasted like metal, as if gold nuggets were popping up under her tongue. "Then it's true about Death? Is Alcyoneus to blame?"

"I think so," Nico said. "It's getting bad in the Underworld. Dad's going crazy trying to keep things under control.

"Even Hades is going crazy," Thalia said "Thing are getting worse."

From what Percy said about the gorgons, things are getting worse up here, too. But look, that's why you're here. All that stuff in your past you can make something good come out of it. You belong at Camp Jupiter."

That sounded so ridiculous, Hazel almost laughed. She didn't belong in this place. She didn't even belong in this century. She should have known better than to focus on the past, but she remembered the day when her old life had been shattered.

The blackout hit her so suddenly,

"Blackout?" Connor asked, "Like her electrics is out?"

Nico glared at him, Connor kept his mouth shut.

she didn't even have time to say, Uh-oh. She shifted back in time. Not a dream or a vision. The memory washed over her with such perfect clarity, she felt she was actually there.

Her most recent birthday. She'd just turned thirteen. But not last December December 17, 1941, the last day she had lived in New Orleans.

The chapter was over; Nico stood up and walked back to his cabin. Everyone remain silent there not in a mood to laugh or even make fun. Andro walked up to Nico before she went back to his cabin. "Andro, I need to be alone," Nico said. She put her hand on his shoulder "I've always knew you can be caring brother," she said and walked away, "I hope you can get through your sister." With that she ran off. 


	6. Chapter 6

THE SON OF NEPTUNE

It was nearly time for reading the sixth chapter and Nico hadn't shown up. "Hey, Andro!" Lou walked up to her half sister. "Hey, dinner's over and no sign of him?" Andro asked. "No, we searched everywhere! We even searched his super messy room! It's filled with CDs, skeletons, pop-corns and trash! Many useless trash!" Lou complained.

"I guess we have to start without him," Andro shrugged. "Andro! Andro!" Katie raced up "I need to borrow that Rafflesia spore in the jar you showed me!"

"Not that thing again! That flower is huge and smells like a corpse! Only Hades would like that smell!" Andro and Lou groaned. "The Rafflesia is about to extinct! But you have the spores! I need to grow them! Come on!" Katie begged.

"It's a type of cross between a flower and a mushroom! And it feed on trees!" Lou protested. "What's your point?" Katie looked at them blankly.

"Uh, fine!" Andro agreed. "Thanks! Come on, let's go read!" Katie said "By the way, I found this in Nico's room. Don't you tell him that I found it," Katie said and tossed Andro a book that Andro ,unfortunately, didn't catch in time. The book ended up on Travis' head.

"Ouch!" Travis shouted. "What the heck is this?" He picked it up. "NO! Wait! Stop, no, wait, don't read it No !" Katie screamed. Andro rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers. The book zipped into her hands before Travis could touch it.

"Katie, what is this?" Lou demanded and Katie muttered something under her breath. "I'm out of here, Lil' magicians and " Travis wrinkled his nose " Gardener of the Strawberry Farm."

"Hey!" The girl shouted at Travis as he ran away. "I should let you know that this is Nico's, emm, diary." Katie explained. "So why are you giving it to me? I don't interfere with anyone's privacy except, well, my sister." Andro pushed the book back to Katie.

"Oh well, I'll read it myself but this is the only chance !" Katie said.

"No, and the answer is final." Andro confirmed.

"Let's go, girls. Cabin 18 is going to start reading." Lou broke them up.

"Alright."

VI Hazel

HAZEL WAS WALKING HOME ALONE from the riding stables. Despite the coldevening, she was buzzing with had just kissed her on the cheek.

The whole Aphrodite's kids crouched in front.

The day had been full of ups and downs. Kids at school had teased her about her mother, calling her a witch and a lot of other names.

Andro's face turned grim. This happens to me every day in my pitiful life! She thought.

That had been going on for a long time, of course, but it was getting worse. Rumors were spreading about Hazel's curse. The school was called St. Agnes Academy for Colored Children and Indians, a name that hadn't changed in a hundred years. Just like its name, the place masked a whole lot of cruelty under a thin veneer of kindness.

"Super! I've always love a lot of cruelty." Andro muttered bitterly.

Hazel didn't understand how other black kids could be so mean. They should've known better, since they themselves had to put up with name-calling all the time. But they yelled at her and stole her lunch, always asking for those famous jewels: "Where's those cursed diamonds, girl? Gimme some or I'll hurt you!" They pushed her away at the water fountain, and threw rocks at her if she tried to approach them on the playground.

Despite how horrible they were, Hazel never gave them diamonds or gold. She didn't hate anyone that much. Besides, she had one friend Sammy and that was enough.

"Oww, how touching!" Some girls said in union.

Sammy liked to joke that he was the perfect St. Agnes student. He was Mexican American, so he considered himself colored and Indian. "They should give me a double scholarship," he said.

Everyone laughed at that.

He wasn't big or strong, but he had a crazy smile and he made Hazel laugh.

"It this me or this Sammy guy looked like Leo?" Nyssa asked.

"Sammy, sound familiar, I heard that name from my mother before ?" Leo mumbled bit nobody heard it.

That afternoon he'd taken her to the stables where he worked as a groom. It was a "whites only" riding club, of course, but it was closed on weekdays, and with the war on, there was talk that the club might have to shut down completely until the Japanese were whipped and the soldiers came back home. Sammy could usually sneak Hazel in to help take care of the horses. Once in a while they'd go riding.

"What happen if they get caught?"Thalia asked.

Hazel loved horses. They seemed to be the only living things that weren't scared of her. People hated her. Cats hissed. Dogs growled. Even the stupid hamster in Miss Finley's classroom squeaked in terror when she gave it a carrot. But horses didn't mind.

No fair! Nico thought. The horses hate me.

When she was in the saddle, she could ride so fast that there was no chance of gemstones cropping up in her wake. She almost felt free of her curse.

"What's her cruse?" Annabeth asked.

"You will know later "Nico said.

That afternoon, she'd taken out a tan roan stallion with a gorgeous black mane. She galloped into the fields so swiftly, she left Sammy behind. By the time he caught up, he and his horse were both winded.

"What are you running from?" He laughed. "I'm not that ugly, am I?"

It was too cold for a picnic, but they had one anyway, sitting under a magnolia tree with the horses tethered to a split-rail fence. Sammy had brought her a cupcake with a birthday candle, which had gotten smashed on the ride but was still the sweetest thing Hazel had ever seen. They broke it in half and shared it.

Annabeth suddenly remember Percy's birthday and they share the misshaped chocolate cake with blue icing.

Sammy talked about the war. He wished he were old enough to go. He asked Hazel if she would write him letters if he were a soldier going overseas.

"'Course, dummy," she said.

He grinned. Then, as if moved by a sudden impulse, he lurched forward and kissed her on the cheek. "Happy birthday, Hazel."

The Aphrodite campers made silly noises until the Hunter shoot arrows at them just to keep them quite. Thank goodness, none of the campers got hurt.

It wasn't much. Just one kiss, and not even on the lips. But Hazel felt like she was floating.

The Aphrodite campers made silly noises (again) until the Hunter shoot arrows (this time is fart arrows) at them just to keep them quite. Thank goodness, none of the campers got hurt, expect the fact Drew broke her nail.

She hardly remembered the ride back to the stables, or telling Sammy goodbye. He said, "See you tomorrow," like he always did. But she would never see him again.

By the time she got back to the French Quarter, it was getting dark. As she approached home, her warm feeling faded, replaced by dread.

Hazel and her mother Queen Marie,

"So she is a queen?" Travis asked.

"No, you idiot!" Said the counselor of the Hebe cabin then she read.

she liked to be called lived in an old apartment above a jazz club. Despite the beginning of the war, there was a festive mood in the air. New recruits would roam the streets, laughing and talking about fighting the Japanese. They'd get tattoos in the parlors or propose to their sweethearts right on the sidewalk. Some would go upstairs to Hazel's mother to have their fortunes read or to buy charms from Marie Levesque, the famous grisgris queen.

"Did you hear?" one would say. "Two bits for this good-luck charm. I took it to a guy I know, and he says it's a real silver nugget. Worth twenty dollars! That voodoo woman is crazy!"

"She is crazy, she didn't earn any profits." Said Chris.

"Just shut up," said Annabeth.

For a while, that kind of talk brought Queen Marie a lot of business. Hazel's curse had started out slowly. At first it seemed like a blessing. The precious stones and gold only appeared once in a while, never in huge quantities. Queen Marie paid her bills. They ate steak for dinner once a week. Hazel even got a new dress. But then stories started spreading. The locals began to realize how many horrible things happened to people who bought those good-luck charms or got paid with Queen Marie's treasure. Charlie Gasceaux lost his arm in a harvester while wearing a gold bracelet.

"Ouch!" some campers said.

Mr. Henry at the general store dropped dead from a heart attack after Queen Marie settled her tab with a ruby.

"That's creepy." some campers said.

Folks started whispering about Hazel how she could find cursed jewels just by walking down the street. These days only out-of-towners came to visit her mother, and not so many of them, either. Hazel's mom had become short-tempered. She gave Hazel resentful looks.

"She shouldn't lose temper on her daughter like that," pointed Thalia remembering her mother.

Hazel climbed the stairs as quietly as she could, in case her mother had a customer. In the club downstairs, the band was tuning their instruments. The bakery next door had started making beignets for tomorrow morning, filling the stairwell with the smell of melting butter.

"I'm hungry," said Connor.

"Dude, you just ate," said Chris to his half brother.

When she got to the top, Hazel thought she heard two voices inside the apartment. But when she peeked into the parlor, her mother was sitting alone at the s ance table, her eyes closed, as if in a trance.

Hazel had seen her that way many times, pretending to talk to spirits for her clients but not ever when she was by herself.

Queen Marie had always told Hazel her gris-gris was "bunk and hokum." She didn't really believe in charms or fortune telling or ghosts. She was just a performer, like a singer or an actress, doing a show for money.

"So she cheating," said Jake.

"No duh!" yelled Clarisse.

But Hazel knew her mother did believe in some magic. Hazel's curse wasn't hokum. Queen Marie just didn't want to think it was her fault that somehow she had made Hazel the way she was.

"It was your blasted father," Queen Marie would grumble in her darker moods. "Coming here in his fancy silver-and black suit. The one time I actually summon a spirit, and what do I get? Fulfills my wish and ruins my life. I should've been a real queen. It's his fault you turned out this way."

"Um, why?" asked Lou.

"Just be quite," said Jake.

She would never explain what she meant, and Hazel had learned not to ask about her father. It just made her mother angrier.

As Hazel watched, Queen Marie muttered something to herself. Her face was calm and relaxed. Hazel was struck by how beautiful she looked, without her scowl and the creases in her brow. She had a lush mane of gold-brown hair like Hazel's, and the same dark complexion, brown as a roasted coffee bean. She wasn't wearing the fancy saffron robes or gold bangles she wore to impress clients just a simple white dress. Still, she had a regal air, sitting straight and dignified in her gilded chair as if she really were a queen.

"You'll be safe there," she murmured. "Far from the gods."

"Where is the place that far from the gods?" asked Phoebe.

Nobody answered her, as far as they knew, they don't want to know and don't want to go.

Hazel stifled a scream. The voice coming from her mother's mouth wasn't hers. It sounded like an older woman's. The tone was soft and soothing, but also commanding like a hypnotist giving orders.

"Gaia" cursed Piper, Leo and Jason.

Queen Marie tensed. She grimaced in her trance, then spoke in her normal voice: "It's too far. Too cold. Too dangerous. He told me not to."

She better listen to it. Thought Thalia.

The other voice responded: "What has he ever done for you? He gave you a poisoned child! But we can use her gift for good. We can strike back at the gods. You will be under my protection in the north, far from the gods' domain. I'll make my son your protector. You'll live like a queen at last."

Yeah right, thought Thaila, Hazel's mother was almost just like hers.

Queen Marie winced. "But what about Hazel "

Thank goodness the mother still care for her child. Thaila thought.

Then her face contorted in a sneer. Both voices spoke in unison, as if they'd found something to agree on: "A poisoned child."

Or not

Hazel fled down the stairs, her pulse racing.

At the bottom, she ran into a man in a dark suit. He gripped her shoulders with strong, cold fingers.

"Easy, child," the man said.

Hazel noticed the silver skull ring on his finger, then the strange fabric of his suit. In the shadows, the solid black wool seemed to shift and boil, forming images of faces in agony, as if lost souls were trying to escape from the folds of his clothes.

His tie was black with platinum stripes. His shirt was tombstone gray. His face Hazel's heart nearly leaped out of her throat. His skin was so white it looked almost blue, like cold milk. He had a flap of greasy black hair. His smile was kind enough, but his eyes were fiery and angry, full of mad power.

"Hades," the campers mumbled in union

Hazel had seen that look in the newsreels at the movie theater. This man looked like that awful Adolf Hitler. He had no mustache, but otherwise he could've been Hitler's twin or his father.

"His father," answered Annabeth.

"Annabeth, you doing it again," said Malcolm. Annabeth sank to her sit.

Hazel tried to pull away. Even when the man let go, she couldn't seem to move. His eyes froze her in place.

"Hazel Levesque," he said in a melancholy voice. "You've grown."

Hazel started to tremble. At the base of the stairs, the cement stoop cracked under the man's feet. A glittering stone popped up from the concrete like the earth had spit out a watermelon seed. The man looked at it, unsurprised. He bent down.

"Don't!" Hazel cried. "It's cursed!"

He picked up the stone a perfectly formed emerald. "Yes, it is. But not to me. So beautiful worth more than this building, I imagine." He slipped the emerald in his pocket. "I'm sorry for your fate, child. I imagine you hate me."

Hazel didn't understand. The man sounded sad, as if he were personally responsible for her life. Then the truth hither: a spirit in silver and black, who'd fulfilled her mother's wishes and ruined her life.

Her eyes widened. "You? You're my "

He cupped his hand under her chin. "I am Pluto. Life is never easy for my children, but you have a special burden. Now that you're thirteen, we must make provisions "

She pushed his hand away.

"You did this to me?" she demanded. "You cursed me and my mother? You left us alone?"

"They have to. Gods can't stay too long with their mortal children." Annabeth explained.

Her eyes stung with tears. This rich white man in a fine suit was her father? Now that she was thirteen, he showed up for the first time and said he was sorry?

"Yup, they always do," said some campers.

"You're evil!" she shouted. "You ruined our lives!"

Pluto's eyes narrowed. "What has your mother told you, Hazel? Has she never explained her wish? Or told you why you were born under a curse?"

The Hecate cabin quickly ran thought they book about cruses. Apparently they found nothing about Hazel's curse.

Hazel was too angry to speak, but Pluto seemed to read the answers in her face.

"No " He sighed. "I suppose she wouldn't. Much easier to blame me."

"What do you mean?"

Pluto sighed. "Poor child. You were born too soon. I cannot see your future clearly, but someday you will find your place. A descendant of Neptune will wash away your curse and give you peace.

"Could Percy be the one," asked Rachel.

"Percy is the son of Poseidon, but descendant can be more like generations after Neptune," explained Annabeth.

"There's only Percy as a son of Neptune Poseidon whatever," said Jason.

"This is just the beginning of the book, there's maybe more," suggested Annabeth.

"Camp Jupiter didn't a have any descendant of Neptune, expect Percy." Jason pointed out.

"How can you be so sure?" asked Rachel.

"I'm the praetor, I ran though all the backgrounds of every legionnaires at the twelfth legion," protested Jason.

"But you're missing for months," pointed Rachel, "there's maybe new recruits,"

Before Jason can say a word, Rachel said, "Last night, I had a vision told me that a descendant of Neptune had arrive weeks before Percy,"

"Who is it then?"

"I don't know the gods don't like giving so much secrets."

I fear, though, that is not for many years. "

Hazel didn't follow any of that. Before she could respond, Pluto held out his hand. A sketchpad and a box of colored pencils appeared in his palm.

"I understand you enjoy art and horseback riding," he said. "These are for your art. As for the horse " His eyes gleamed. "That, you'll have to manage yourself. Now I must speak with your mother. Happy birthday, Hazel."

"That's it," asked Leo.

"Yup, what do you expect?" said Nyssa.

He turned and headed up the stairs just like that, as if he'd checked Hazel off his "to do" list and had already forgotten her. Happy birthday. Go draw apicture. See you in another thirteen years.

"Like they always do " mumbled some campers.

She was so stunned, so angry, so upside-down confused that she just stood paralyzed at the base of the steps. She wanted to throw down the colored pencils and stomp on them. She wanted to charge after Pluto and kick him. She wanted to run away, find Sammy, steal a horse, leave town and never come back. But she didn't do any of those things.

"Dumper," muttered Thaila.

Above her, the apartment door opened, and Pluto stepped inside.

Hazel was still shivering from his cold touch, but she crept up the stairs to see what he would do. What would he say to Queen Marie?

"Maybe like, 'Hi, long time no see, how you're doing these thirteen years?'" joked Leo.

"Leo," said Jason, "You're weird."

Leo just showed a big grin.

Who would speak back Hazel's mother, or that awful voice?

When she reached the doorway, Hazel heard arguing. She peeked in. Her mother seemed back to normal screaming and angry, throwing things around the parlor while Pluto tried to reason with her.

"I felt bad for Hades," said Grover.

"Marie, it's insanity," he said. "You'll be far beyond my power to protect you."

"Protect me?" Queen Marie yelled. "When have you ever protected me?"

"Kind of," mumbled some campers.

Pluto's dark suit shimmered, as if the souls trapped in the fabric were getting agitated.

"You have no idea," he said. "I've kept you alive, you and the child. My enemies are everywhere among gods and men. Now with the war on, it will only get worse. You must stay where I can "

"The police think I'm a murderer!" Queen Marie shouted. "My clients want to hang me as a witch!

Most of the Hecate children started to protest, like being a witch isn't so bad.

And Hazel her curse is getting worse. Your protection is killing us."

Pluto spread his hands in a pleading gesture. "Marie, please "

"No!" Queen Marie turned to the closet, pulled out a leather valise, and threw it on the table. "We're leaving," she announced. "You can keep your protection. We're going north."

"North, as in Canada?" asked Piper.

"Alaska, far beyond the gods," said Chiron.

"Marie, it's a trap," Pluto warned. "Whoever's whispering in your ear, whoever's turning you against me "

"You turned me against you!" She picked up a porcelain vase and threw it at him. It shattered on the floor, and precious stones spilled everywhere emeralds, rubies, diamonds. Hazel's entire collection.

"You won't survive," Pluto said. "If you go north, you'll both die. I can foresee that clearly."

"No, he's the god of the underworld," said Thalia.

"Get out!" she said.

Hazel wished Pluto would stay and argue. Whatever her mother was talking about, Hazel didn't like it. But her father slashed his hand across the air and dissolved into shadows like he really was a spirit.

The campers just rolled their eyes.

Queen Marie closed her eyes. She took a deep breath. Hazel was afraid the strange voice might possess her again. But when she spoke, she was her regular self.

Trembling, Hazel obeyed. She clutched the sketchpad and colored pencils to her chest.

Her mother studied her like she was a bitter disappointment. A poisoned child, the voices had said.

"Pack a bag," she ordered. "We're moving."

"Oh gods they're doom," said most of they campers.

"Wh-where?" Hazel asked.

"Alaska," Queen Marie answered. "You're going to make yourself useful. We're going to start a new life."

The way her mother said that, it sounded as if they were going to create a "new life" for someone else or something else.

"I hate Gaea," said Jason.

"What did Pluto mean?" Hazel asked. "Is he really my father? He said you made a wish "

"Go to your room!" her mother shouted. "Pack!" Hazel fled, and suddenly she was ripped out of the past.

Nico was shaking her shoulders. "You did it again."

The campers are ever so glad to see Nico, because Hazel's past is too darn creepy.

Hazel blinked. They were still sitting on the roof of Pluto's shrine. The sun was lower in the sky. More diamonds had surfaced around her, and her eyes stung from crying.

"S-sorry," she murmured.

"Don't be," Nico said. "Where were you?"

"My mother's apartment. The day we moved."

Nico nodded. He understood her history better than most people could. He was also a kid from the 1940s. He'd been born only a few years after Hazel, and had been locked away in a magic hotel for decades.

"Lotus casino," cursed Annabeth and Grover, "I hate that place."

But Hazel's past was much worse than Nico's. She'd caused so much damage and misery.

"You have to work on controlling those memories," Nico warned. "If a flashback like that happens when you're in combat "

"She shouldn't," said Clarisse, "She will lose,"

"I know," she said. "I'm trying."

Nico squeezed her hand. "It's okay. I think it's a side effect from you know, your time in the Underworld. Hopefully it'll get easier."

Hazel wasn't so sure. After eight months, the blackouts seemed to be getting worse, as if her soul were attempting to live in two different time periods at once. No one had ever come back from the dead before at least, not the way she had. Nico was trying to reassure her, but neither of them knew what would happen.

"I can't go north again," Hazel said. "Nico, if I have to go back to where it happened "

Hazel remembered what Pluto told her long ago: A descendant of Neptune willwash away your curse and give you peace.

Was Percy the one? Maybe, but Hazel sensed it wouldn't be so easy. She wasn't sure even Percy could survive what was waiting in the north.

Everyone started to pray, hoping Percy will survive he has to be.

"Where did he come from?" she asked. "Why do the ghosts call him the Greek?"

"He came from Camp Half Blood, a camp for Greek demigods," explained Annabeth.

Malcolm looked at her, Annabeth sank to her seat.

Before Nico could respond, horns blew across the river. The legionnaires were gathering for evening muster.

"We'd better get down there," Nico said. "I have a feeling tonight's war games are going to be interesting."

The counselor closed the book. Every started to walk back to their cabin. Some campers stay back to carry the Hypnos children back to their cabin, cursing along the way. When everyone was gone, Nico appeared by shadow traveling. "Gods, after China, India, UK, New Zealand and Malaysia and other 16 countries finally I made back," Nico said to himself, "Wait where is everybody?" With that he collapsed and fell asleep.  



	7. Chapter 7

THE SON OF NEPTUNE

The morning sun shone on Nico, Nico opened his eyes. He saw campers stood around him, crossing their arms. Nico stood up, "Hi," He said. "Why you weren't there last night?" said Annabeth. "Umm " Nico said "I was traveling,"

"Where?"

"A lot of places," he muttered.

Annabeth raised an eye brow "Are you sure? You've been here all night!" Annabeth growled. "I hadn't practiced for a long time so I lost a bit of control " Nico explained.

"Well, go wash up; you look like you've been sleeping in the wild." Thalia rolled her eyes in disgust. "Inspection is about to start. You should clean your cabin;" Annabeth wrinkled her nose "It's filthy!"

When Nico got to his cabin, he was too stunted to even speak. The sheets were hanging by the windows, the pillows were under the bed and his closet is lying on the floor and everything inside was outside. The place looked either a tornado had struck by or someone had been in his cabin.

He groaned helplessly and hoped that Lou Ellen could tell him if there was a cleaning up spell. After he cleaned up the place with the help of his trusty army of skeleton warriors, he felt like something was missing.

He ran through everything that he touched. "No!" He shouted "Where's my journal?"

Suddenly, Miranda and Katie of the Demeter cabin came. They had a clipboard in their hands. "Well, this place is tidy," Miranda said.

"But no plants at all! Hmm, three points for you." Katie decided. Nico plucked some grass from outside his cabin and threw them into his cabin. "Here, plants! Are you happy now?" Nico grumbled.

"You have no respect to the grass, young man!" Katie hissed. "Two points!" Miranda suggested.

"Who cares? I lost my journal and someone- besides me- went into my room and trashed it!" Nico threw his hands up. Katie and Miranda gulped. "Maybe someone took it." Katie said carefully. "It isn't us! It can't be the Athena cabin too; they're too smart to do that." Miranda muttered.

"If I find out who did it, he or she is going to pay." Nico grumbled. The two girls left him alone. "We're doomed!" they said in union.

That night the Demeter cabin stayed away from Nico as far as possible. "Cabin 17, please it's your turn." Chiron announced.

The Nike cabin's counselor stood up proudly as if she (or he) won a game between her (or his) cabin mates.

The counselor read:

VII Hazel

ON THE WAY BACK, HAZEL TRIPPED OVER A GOLD BAR.

"Ouch," some of the campers muttered.

She should have known not to run so fast, but she was afraid of being late for muster. The Fifth Cohort had the nicest centurions in camp. Still, even they would have to punish her if she was tardy. Roman punishments were harsh: scrubbing the streets with a toothbrush, cleaning the bull pens at the coliseum, getting sewn inside a sack full of angry weasels and dumped into the Little Tiber the options were not great.

"Wow, I thought our punishments were harsh," said Connor and Travis.

"Before I forget, Hermes cabin has kitchen duty tomorrow," said Chiron "the worst cabin for the inspection today."

The Hermes cabin groaned.

The gold bar popped out of the ground just in time for her foot to hit it. Nico tried to catch her, but she took a spill and scraped her hands.

"Ouch!" they said again.

"You okay?" Nico knelt next to her and reached for the bar of gold.

"Don't!" Hazel warned.

Nico froze. "Right. Sorry. It's just jeez. That thing is huge." He pulled a flask of nectar from his aviator jacket and poured a little on Hazel's hands. Immediately the cuts started to heal. "Can you stand?"

He helped her up. They both stared at the gold. It was the size of a bread loaf, stamped with a serial number and the words U.S. treasury.

The campers can only said "Wow,"

Nico shook his head. "How in Tartarus ?"

"I don't know," Hazel said miserably. "It could've been buried there by robbers or dropped off a wagon a hundred years ago. Maybe it migrated from the nearest bank vault. Whatever's in the ground, anywhere close to me it just pops up. And the more valuable it is "

"The more dangerous it is." Nico frowned. "Should we cover it up? If the fauns find it "

"Fauns are not that greedy right?" Grover asked Jason. But Jason zipped his mouth.

Hazel imagined a mushroom cloud billowing up from the road, char-broiled fauns tossed in every direction. It was too horrible to consider. "It should sink back underground after I leave, eventually, but just to be sure "

She'd been practicing this trick, but never with something so heavy and dense. She pointed at the gold bar and tried to concentrate.

"What's she doing?" asked Leo.

"Shut up," said Nico.

The gold levitated. She channeled her anger, which wasn't hard she hated that gold, she hated her curse, she hated thinking about her past and all the ways she'd failed. Her fingers tingled. The gold bar glowed with heat.

Some of the campers were trembling.

Nico gulped. "Um, Hazel, are you sure ?"

She made a fist. The gold bent like putty. Hazel forced it to twist into a giant, lumpy ring. Then she flicked her hand toward the ground. Her million-dollar doughnut slammed into the earth. It sank so deep, nothing was left but a scar of fresh dirt.

Nico's eyes widened. "That was terrifying."

"Wow, Nico is scared!" teased the Hermes cabin.

"Shut up!"

Hazel didn't think it was so impressive compared to the powers of a guy who could reanimate skeletons and bring people back from the dead, but it felt good to surprise him for a change.

Inside the camp, horns blew again. The cohorts would be starting roll call, and Hazel had no desire to be sewn into a sack of weasels.

"Hurry!" she told Nico, and they ran for the gates.

The first time Hazel had seen the legion assemble, she'd been so intimidated, she'd almost slunk back to the barracks to hide. Even after being at camp for nine months, she still found it an impressive sight.

The first four cohorts, each forty kids strong, stood in rows in front of their barracks on either side of the Via Praetoria. The Fifth Cohort assembled at the very end, in front of the principia, since their barracks were tucked in the back corner of camp next to the stables and the latrines. Hazel had to run right down the middle of the legion to reach her place.

The campers were dressed for war. Their polished chain mail and greaves gleamed over purple T-shirts and jeans. Sword-and-skull designs decorated their helmets. Even their leather combat boots looked ferocious with their iron cleats, great for marching through mud or stomping on faces.

"They march?" Jake said. He found that it's a horrible idea. (A/N I hate marching!)

In front of the legionnaires, like a line of giant dominoes, stood their red and gold shields, each the size of a refrigerator door. Every legionnaire carried a harpoon like spear called a pilum, a gladius, a dagger, and about a hundred pounds of other equipment. If you were out of shape when you came to the legion, you didn't stay that way for long. Just walking around in your armor was a full-body workout.

Hazel and Nico jogged down the street as everyone was coming to attention, so their entrance was really obvious. Their footsteps echoed on the stones. Hazel tried to avoid eye contact, but she caught Octavian at the head of the First Cohort smirking at her, looking smug in his plumed centurion's helmet with a dozen medals pinned on his chest.

"The medals are for ?" asked Annabeth.

"Something like

Hazel was still seething from his blackmail threats earlier. Stupid augur and his gift of prophecy of all the people at camp to discover her secrets, why did it have to be him? She was sure he would have told on her weeks ago, except that he knew her secrets were worth more to him as leverage. She wished she'd kept that bar of gold so she could hit him in the face with it.

She ran past Reyna, who was cantering back and forth on her pegasus Scipio nicknamed Skippy because he was the color of peanut butter. The metal dogs Aurum and Argentum trotted at her side. Her purple officer's cape billowed behind her.

"Hazel Levesque," she called, "so glad you could join us."

Hazel knew better than to respond. She was missing most of her equipment, but she hurried to her place in line next to Frank and stood at attention. Their lead centurion, a big seventeen-year-old guy named Dakota, was just calling her name the last one on the roll.

"Present!" she squeaked.

Thank the gods. Technically, she wasn't late.

Nico joined Percy Jackson, who was standing off to one side with a couple of guards. Percy's hair was wet from the baths. He'd put on fresh clothes, but he still looked uncomfortable. Hazel couldn't blame him. He was about to be introduced to two hundred heavily armed kids.

The Lares were the last ones to fall in. Their purple forms flickered as they jockeyed for places. They had an annoying habit of standing halfway inside living people, so that the ranks looked like a blurry photograph, but finally the centurions got them sorted out.

Octavian shouted, "Colors!"

The standard-bearers stepped forward. They wore lion-skin capes and held poles decorated with each cohort's emblems. The last to present his standard was Jacob, the legion's eagle bearer. He held a long pole with absolutely nothing on top. The job was supposed to be a big honor, but Jacob obviously hated it. Even though Reyna insisted on following tradition, every time the eagle less pole was raised, Hazel could feel embarrassment rippling through the legion.

Reyna brought her pegasus to a halt.

"Romans!" she announced. "You've probably heard about the incursion today. Two gorgons were swept into the river by this newcomer, Percy Jackson. Juno herself guided him here, and proclaimed him a son of Neptune."

The kids in the back rows craned their necks to see Percy. He raised his hand and said, "Hi."

"Is this me or Percy's first day at camp half blood was so much better than this?" said Annabeth.

"He fought the Minotaur, without training and lost his mother!" said Grover,

"He got a tour with Annabeth, which is a torture!" said an Ares' child.

"Hey!" protested Annabeth, "He almost got dunk in the toilet by you guys!"

"I have been wash over by toilet!" protested Clarisse. "You used him as bait at capture the flag!"

"You felled for it," protested Annabeth, "If I didn't place him in the creek as a distraction, he won't get claimed!"

Clarisse started to stand up and fight, Annabeth had her dagger ready. It took a lot of camper to hold Clarisse back.

Before any chaos happen the consoler of the Nike cabin began to read.

"He seeks to join the legion," Reyna continued. "What do the auguries say?"

"I have read the entrails!" Octavian announced, as if he'd killed a lion with his bare hands rather than ripping up a stuffed panda pillow.

The Hypnos cabin looked down and had a one minute silence "May the panda rest in peace "

The other just rolled their eyes, "It's not a living thing!" one of the Athena cabin said, "It's made of cotton " the camper started on pop up some facts about processing panda pillows until

The poor camper was sent to the infirmary before he finished his lecture.

"The auguries are favorable. He is qualified to serve!"

I can do better than that! Thought Rachel, I speck prophecy but you just cut open teddy bear.

The campers gave a shout: "Ave!" Hail!

Frank was a little late with his "ave," so it came out as a high-pitched echo. The other legionnaires snickered.

Reyna motioned the senior officers forward one from each cohort. Octavian, as the most senior centurion, turned to Percy.

"Recruit," he asked, "do you have credentials? Letters of reference?"

"Umm, what are those?" asked Annabeth.  
"The legion separate the campers according into five cohorts," Jason counted with his fingers, "First Cohort is called the pride of Camp Jupiter, the First Cohort takes campers with the best reference letters. The second is the same but with a lower stranded, as is goes lower to the third and the forth." Jason starched his head trying to remember something. "The campers with the worst or no reference letters join the Fifth Cohort. They are the worst of the legion," Jason felt guilty saying that line, something tell him he form the Fifth Cohort.  
Hazel remembered this from her own arrival. A lot of kids brought letters from older demigods in the outside world, adults who were veterans of the camp. Some recruits had rich and famous sponsors. Some were third- or fourth-generation campers. A good letter could get you a position in the better cohorts, sometimes even special jobs like legion messenger, which made you exempt from the grunt work like digging ditches or conjugating Latin verbs.

Percy shifted. "Letters? Um, no."

Octavian wrinkled his nose.

Unfair! Hazel wanted to shout. Percy had carried a goddess into camp. What better recommendation could you want?

Jason started wondering why he end up in the fifth cohort maybe the other won't accept a three year old joining them.

But Octavian's family had been sending kids to camp for over a century. He loved reminding recruits that they were less important than he was.

He just an Augur for crying out loud, thought Jason.

"No letters," Octavian said regretfully. "Will any legionnaires stand for him?"

"I will!" Frank stepped forward. "He saved my life!"

Immediately there were shouts of protest from the other cohorts. Reyna raised her hand for quiet and glared at Frank.

"Frank Zhang," she said, "For the second time today, I remind you that you are on probatio. Your godly parent has not even claimed you yet. You're not eligible to stand for another camper until you've earned your first stripe."

Frank looked like he might die of embarrassment.

Hazel couldn't leave him hanging. She stepped out of line and said, "What Frank means is that Percy saved both our lives. I am a full member of the legion. I will stand for Percy Jackson."

Frank glanced at her gratefully, but the other campers started to mutter. Hazel was barely eligible. She'd only gotten her stripe a few weeks ago, and the "act of valor" that earned it for her had been mostly an accident. Besides, she was a daughter of Pluto, and a member of the disgraced Fifth Cohort. She wasn't doing Percy much of a favor by giving him her support.

It's better than got kick out right? Jason thought.

Reyna wrinkled her nose, but she turned to Octavian. The augur smiled and shrugged, like the idea amused him.

Why not? Hazel thought. Putting Percy in the Fifth would make him less of a threat, and Octavian liked to keep all his enemies in one place.

Jason cursed in Latin, Percy's dead.

"Very well," Reyna announced. "Hazel Levesque, you may stand for the recruit. Does your cohort accept him?"

The other cohorts started coughing, trying not to laugh. Hazel knew what they were thinking: Another loser for the Fifth.

Frank pounded his shield against the ground. The other members of the Fifth followed his lead, though they didn't seem very excited. Their centurions, Dakota and Gwen, exchanged pained looks, like: Herewe go again.

"My cohort has spoken," Dakota said. "We accept the recruit."

"Percy isn't that bad!" protested Annabeth.

Reyna looked at Percy with pity. "Congratulations, Percy Jackson. You stand on probatio. You will be given a tablet with your name and cohort. In one year's time or as soon as you complete an act of valor, you will become a full member of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata. Serve Rome, obey the rules of the legion, and defend the camp with honor. Senatus PopulusqueRomanus!"

The rest of the legion echoed the cheer.

Reyna wheeled her pegasus away from Percy, like she was glad to be done with him. Skippy spread his beautiful wings. Hazel couldn't help feeling a pang of envy. She'd give anything for a horse like that, but it would never happen. Horses were for officers only, or barbarian cavalry, not for Roman legionnaires.

"While she can ride our pegasus, if she visits Camp half-blood,"muttered Nico.

"Centurions," Reyna said, "you and your troops have one hour for dinner. Then we will meet on the Field of Mars. The First and Second Cohorts will defend. The Third, Fourth, and Fifth will attack. Good fortune!"

A bigger cheer went up for the war games and for dinner. The cohorts broke ranks and ran for the mess hall.

Hazel waved at Percy, who made his way through the crowd with Nico at his side. To Hazel's surprise, Nico was beaming at her.

Everyone looked at Nico with disbelief. "Hey!" protested Nico "I can be a good brother!"

"Good job, Sis," he said. "That took guts, standing for him."

He had never called her Sis before. She wondered if that was what he had called Bianca.

Nico nodded silently.

One of the guards had given Percy his probationameplate. Percy strung it on his leather necklace with the strange beads.

"Thanks, Hazel," he said. "Um, what exactly does it mean you're standing for me?"

"I guarantee your good behavior," Hazel explained. "I teach you the rules, answer your questions, make sure you don't disgrace the legion."

"And if I do something wrong?"

"Then I get killed along with you," Hazel said. "Hungry? Let's eat."

The counselor closed the book. And everyone got to their cabins for tomorrow's big day.

Nico went back to his cabin, and found his journal at the foot of his door steps. He took off the hidden camera. In the video, Katie and Miranda were creeping around his cabin laying his journal on the floor. He snapped his fingers, chaos rose at the Demeter cabin. Nico rest on his bed and started to snore.

Suddenly, someone knocked on his door. Nico managed to drag himself out of bed. He found himself face to face with an army of supernatural killers. The skeletons stared at him. Nico puzzled then he realized they were waiting for orders.

"Go, um, pull a prank or destroy the plants of the Demeter cabin. Remember, no killing anyone. Or else " Nico hung the threat in mid air. The skeletons bustled towards the Demeter cabin, leaving some occasional passing by satyrs and half-bloods screaming in terror.

Nico watched as the skeletons kicking and throwing the pots in different directions. Nico laughed so hard he rolled on his back on the floor. He paused as someone knocked on his door again. He stood up and opened it.

The Athena cabin and Hecate cabin were standing in front of him.

"Hey! Nice weather, yeah?" Nico said and scratched his head. Annabeth spoke up first "What did you do, Nico? You destroyed half of camp! Your skeleton warriors threw the pots and plants of the Demeter cabin everywhere! They went back to the Underworld thanks to the Hecate cabin!"

"But how did you guys control them?" Nico turned to the Hecate cabin. "Pfft, our mother made the Underworld, dummy! We practically own it besides Hades." Lou and Andro snorted.

"Now, apologize and pay for what you did, Nico." Malcolm said. "Alright but do you have anything that can erase part of the memory?" Nico asked.

"Why do you ask?" Lou demanded. "Well, I only did this because the Demeter cabin read my journal!" Nico explained "I want them to forget it, is that so wrong?" Nico gave them a pity look.

"Well, let's clean the camp first. We'll give you the potion in the morning." Lou marched away with her cabin mates but Andro stayed beside Annabeth. Annabeth shot a glare at Nico "Remember to help cleaning up." Then she walked away.

Andro gave Nico a dirty look and followed the others out of his cabin. Nico groaned and summoned more undead warriors to help cleaning up. "I wish Hazel was here " he mumbled to himself.  
own. She's facebook-ing all day long not writing a single word. I had some schoolwork to be done so I need to wait her the weekends. Anyway review! 


	8. Chapter 8

THE SON OF NEPTUNE

VIII Hazel

Leo wasn't having a good day. First one of the oars broke. Second the winds kept blowing and cause the campers a hard time to hang the sails. The base of the boat had a hole. It took some time for the campers to fix it. The Aphrodite and the Athena cabin were weaving the main sail and fixing the burn hole which had about 16 inch radius. (Blame Leo for going moody). "Can you go any faster?" complained Leo.

"This is a work of art, Leo," said Annabeth, "It takes time, and after all you wanted it to be perfect,"

"For crying out loud, your mother lost over a spider!" Leo protested, "How are the sail going to be prefect?"

Leo saw Annabeth with her head down, her right hand was reaching for her danger. Uh-oh! Leo thought. Before he could make a move, Leo found himself pinned on the wall. Annabeth's knife was right under his chin.

"If it wasn't for Percy," threaten Annabeth, "I would kill you right now, don't EVER insult my mother!" with that, Annabeth walked away and continued her work, talking happily with Piper. Holy Hephaestus, how did Percy put up with her? Thought Leo. Leo felt something on his shoulder and saw Jason. "Need some help?" asked Jason. Leo grinned, "Yes, can you ease the winds for a while?"

The horn blew; everyone stopped their activity and went for dinner. Only, Leo stayed to examine the blueprints. "Leo, aren't you coming?" asked Jason, "I'm fine," "Leo, not eating will cost you dearly," said Piper. "Guys I'm fine, go without me," protested Leo, "There's something missing," Annabeth just packed her things and took a quick looked at the blueprints, "The metal plates were place wrongly," explained Annabeth and walked away. "See, that's what you get for not eating, brain malfunction, let's go!" said Piper with a little charm speak. Leo finally listened and followed.

At the campfire, campers gathered at the amphitheatre. The counselor of the Nemesis cabin began to read

VIII Hazel

AT LEAST THE CAMP FOOD WAS GOOD. Invisible wind spirits aurae waited on the campers and seemed to know exactly what everyone wanted. They blew plates and cups around so quickly, the mess hall looked like a delicious hurricane. If you got up too fast, you were likely to get beamed by beans or potted by a pot roast.

"Ouch," said some campers.

Hazel got shrimp gumbo her favorite comfort food. It made her think about being a little girl in New Orleans, before her curse set in and her mom got so bitter. Percy got a cheeseburger and a strange looking soda that was bright blue. Hazel didn't understand that, but Percy tried it and grinned.

"He just likes blue color," explained Annabeth, "Nothing special,"

"This makes me happy," he said. "I don't know why but it does." Just for a moment, one of the aurae became visible an elfin girl in a white silk dress. She giggled as she topped off Percy's glass, then disappeared in a gust.

"The aurae might know him," said Grover.

The mess hall seemed especially noisy tonight. Laughter echoed off the walls. War banners rustled from cedar ceiling beams as aurae blew back and forth, keeping everyone's plates full. The campers dined Roman style, sitting on couches around low tables. Kids were constantly getting up and trading places, spreading rumors about who liked whom and all the other gossip.

"No fair!" protested the campers looking at Chiron. But Chiron's expression had shown that he will not change the rules.

As usual, the Fifth Cohort took the place of least honor. Their tables were at the back of the dining hall next to the kitchen. Hazel's table was always the least crowded. Tonight it was she and Frank, as usual, with Percy and

Nico and their centurion Dakota, who sat there, Hazel figured, because he felt obligated to welcome the new recruit.

"Typical" said some campers.

Dakota reclined glumly on his couch, mixing sugar into his drink and chugging it. He was a beefy guy with curly black hair and eyes that didn't quite line up straight, so Hazel felt like the world was leaning whenever she looked at him. It wasn't a good sign that he was drinking so much so early in the night.

"How old is he? Is he supposed to drink wine?" Pollux asked.

"Maybe it isn't wine," Annabeth answered.

"So." He burped, waving his goblet. "Welcome to the Percy, party." He frowned. "Party, Percy. Whatever."

"Is he's drunk?" asked Pollux.

"You're the wine god's son, can't you tell?" said Travis.

"Shut up!"

"Um, thanks," Percy said, but his attention was focused on Nico. "I was wondering if we could talk, you know about where I might have seen you before."

"Why must he keep looking at me?" Nico complained.

"Sure," Nico said a little too quickly. "The thing is, I spend most of my time in the Underworld. So unless I met you there somehow "

"Excuse me?" Annabeth growled.

"Can't I even lie to him?" Nico complained. "Further more, he went to the Underworld a few times, right?"

Annabeth didn't have an answer for that.

Dakota belched. "Ambassador from Pluto,

"Ambassador?" An Ares' cabin kid shouted unconvinced.

"That's me!"

they call him. Reyna's never sure what to do with this guy when he visits. You should have seen her face when he showed up with Hazel, asking Reyna to take her in. Um, no offense."

"None taken." Nico seemed relieved to change the topic. "Dakota was really helpful, standing for Hazel."

Dakota blushed. "Yeah, well She seemed like a good kid. Turned out I was right. Last month, when she saved me from, uh, you know."

"From what?" someone asked but no one answered.

"Oh, man!" Frank looked up from his fish and chips. "Percy, you should have seen her! That's how Hazel got her stripe. The unicorns decided to stampede "

The camp fire turned brighter as the campers were more interested.

"It was nothing," Hazel said.

The fire died a little as they felt disappointed.

"Nothing?" Frank protested. "Dakota would've gotten trampled! You stood right in front of them, shooed them away, saved his hide. I've never seen anything like it."

Hazel bit her lip. She didn't like to talk about it, and she felt uncomfortable, the way Frank made her sound like a hero. In truth, she'd been mostly afraid that the unicorns would hurt themselves in their panic. Their horns were precious metal silver and gold so she'd managed to turn them aside simply by concentrating, steering the animals by their horns and guiding them back to the stables. It had gotten her a full place in the legion, but it had also started rumors about her strange powers rumors that reminded her of the bad old days.

"Bad old days?" Someone asked and turned to Nico. "Don't ask," he said.

Percy studied her. Those sea-green eyes made her unsettled.

"Did you and Nico grow up together?" he asked.

"No," Nico answered for her. "I found out that Hazel was my sister only recently. She's from New Orleans."

That was true, of course, but not the whole truth. Nico let people think he'd stumbled upon her in modern New Orleans and brought her to camp. It was easier than telling the real story.

"What did ?" Annabeth started.

"You'll see, now stop interrupting!" Nico protested.

Hazel had tried to pass herself off as a modern kid. It wasn't easy. Thankfully, demigods didn't use a lot of technology at camp. Their powers tended to make electronic gadgets go haywire.

"I know ," mumbled some camper, "No fair that the Athena, Hermes and Hephaestus do not had the problem."

The Athena, Hermes and Hephaestus just put their tongue out.

But the first time she went on furlough to Berkeley, she had nearly had a stroke. Televisions, computers, iPods, the Internet It made her glad to get back to the world of ghosts, unicorns, and gods. That seemed much less of a fantasy than the twenty-first century.

Nico was still talking about the children of Pluto. "There aren't many of us," he said, "so we have to stick together. When I found Hazel "

"You have other sisters?" Percy asked, almost as if he knew the answer. Hazel wondered again when he and Nico had met, and what her brother was hiding.

A lot, Nico thought, tell you when the time is right

"One," Nico admitted. "But she died. I saw her spirit a few times in the Underworld, except that the last time I went down there..."

To bring her back, Hazel thought, though Nico didn't say that.

"She was gone." Nico's voice turned hoarse. "She used to be in Elysium like, the Underworld paradise but she chose to be reborn into a new life. Now I'll never see her again. I was just lucky to find Hazel in New Orleans, I mean."

Dakota grunted. "Unless you believe the rumors. Not saying that I do."

"Rumors?" Percy asked.

"What rumors?" asked some campers.

"Shut up!" Nico protested.

From across the room, Don the faun yelled, "Hazel!"

Hazel had never been so glad to see the faun. He wasn't allowed in camp, but of course he always managed to get in. He was working his way toward their table, grinning at everybody, sneaking food off plates, and pointing at campers: "Hey! Call me!" A flying pizza smacked him in the head,

"Ouch," said some campers.

and he disappeared behind a couch. Then he popped up, still grinning, and made his way over.

"My favorite girl!" He smelled like a wet goat wrapped in old cheese. He leaned over their couches and checked out their food. "Say, new kid, you going to eat that?"

"Roman fauns are evil!" protested Grover.

Everyone looked at him, Jason felt slightly angry.

Percy frowned. "Aren't fauns vegetarian?"

"Not the cheeseburger, man! The plate!" He sniffed Percy's hair. "Hey what's that smell?"

"Thanks Pan!" said Grover.

"Don!" Hazel said. "Don't be rude."

"No, man, I just "

Their house god Vitellius shimmered into existence, standing half embedded in Frank's couch. "Fauns in the dining hall! What are we coming to? Centurion Dakota, do your duty!"

"I am," Dakota grumbled into his goblet. "I'm having dinner!"

Don was still sniffing around Percy. "Man, you've got an empathy link with a faun!"

Some of the campers were confused. "Percy and Grover share an empathy link," explained Annabeth.

The campers were still confused Annabeth sight and explained "An empathy link is a telepathic contact from one person to another from a great distance. This communication can occur when both persons involved are awake or if one of them is sleeping. When one of them is sleeping, the other can show a virtual image of where he is through the person's dream. Both users also have the ability to sense where the other is and read their emotions. If one person dies, the other will either die as well or be left in a permanent vegetative state. An empathy link can only be terminated if the two users are face to face and only if wanted. It cannot be terminated if it is forced." [A/N Copy from Camp Half Blood Wiki]

"Oh "

"Thank you Miss Wikipedia!" shouted an Ares kid.

Annabeth glared at him.

Percy leaned away from him. "A what?"

"An empathy link! It's real faint, like somebody's suppressed it, but "

"I know what!" Nico stood suddenly. "Hazel, how about we give you and Frank time to get Percy oriented? Dakota and I can visit the praetor's table. Don and Vitellius, you come too. We can discuss strategies for the war games."

"There's nothing to hide," said Annabeth.

"Yeah, its better that Percy find it himself." Said Nico

"Strategies for losing?" Dakota muttered.

"Cheer up," said a girl from the Tyche cabin flipping a coin.

"Death Boy is right!" Vitellius said.

"Hey, only we can call Nico, Death Boy!" protested the campers expect Nico

"This legion fights worse than we did in Judea, and that was the first time we lost our eagle. Why, if I were in charge "

"It will be a disaster," Nico muttered.

"Could I just eat the silverware first?" Don asked.

"Let's go!" Nico stood and grabbed Don and Vitellius by the ears.

Nobody but Nico could actually touch the Lares. Vitellius spluttered with outrage as he was dragged off to the praetor's table.

The campers grinned.

"Ow!" Don protested. "Man, watch the 'fro!"

"Ouch," said some campers.

"Come on, Dakota!" Nico called over his shoulder.

The centurion got up reluctantly. He wiped his mouth uselessly, since it was permanently stained red. "Back soon." He shook all over, like a dog trying to get dry. Then he staggered away, his goblet sloshing.

"What was that about?" Percy asked.

"And what's wrong with Dakota?" Frank sighed. "He's okay. He's a son of Bacchus, the wine god.

"Pollux, you had a brother!" exclaimed Connor.

"I know Captain Oblivious,"

He's got a drinking problem." Percy's eyes widened. "You let him drink wine?"

"No fair!" protested Pollux.

"Gods, no!" Hazel said. "That would be a disaster. He's addicted to red Kool- Aid. Drinks it with three times the normal sugar, and he's already ADHD you know, attention deficit/hyperactive. One of these days, his head is going to explode."

"Ouch!"

Percy looked over at the praetor's table. Most of the senior officers were in deep conversation with Reyna. Nico and his two captives, Don and Vitellius, stood on the periphery. Dakota was running back and forth along a line of stacked shields, banging his goblet on them like they were a xylophone.

Pollux felt pity for the goblet, not his half brother, Dakota.

"ADHD," Percy said. "You don't say."

Hazel tried not to laugh. "Well most demigods are. Or dyslexic. Just being a demigod means that our brains are wired differently. Like you you said you had trouble reading."

"Are you guys that way too?" Percy asked.

"I don't know," Hazel admitted.

"Well, read a book," said Malcolm

"Maybe. Back in my day, they just called kids like us 'lazy.'"

Percy frowned. "Back in your day?"

Hazel cursed herself.

Luckily for her, Frank spoke up: "I wish I was ADHD or dyslexic. All I got is lactose intolerance."

"Seriously? Lactose intolerance?" Annabeth found it amusing.

Percy grinned. "Seriously?"

Frank might've been the silliest demigod ever, but Hazel thought he was cute when he pouted. His shoulders slumped. "And I love ice cream, too. "

"Awkward!" Someone shouted.

Percy laughed. Hazel couldn't help joining in. It was good to sit at dinner and actually feel like she was among friends.

"Okay, so tell me," Percy said, "why is it bad to be in the Fifth Cohort? You guys are great."

Everyone looked at Jason.

The compliment made Hazel's toes tingle. "It's complicated. Aside from being Pluto's kid, I want to ride horses."

"That's why you use a cavalry sword?"

She nodded. "It's stupid, I guess. Wishful thinking. There's only one pegasus at camp Reyna's. The unicorns are just kept for medicine, because the shavings off their horns cure poison and stuff. Anyway, Roman fighting is always done on foot. Cavalry they kind of look down on that. So they look down on me."

"They can't judge people like that," said Annabeth.

"But you ," protested Malcolm.

Annabeth glared at him.

"Their loss," Percy said. "What about you, Frank?"

"Archery," he muttered.

The Apollo kids and the huntresses protested. Finally they agreed in something.

"They don't like that either, unless you're a child of Apollo. Then you've got an excuse. I hope my dad is Apollo,

"That bulky guy is not my brother!" protested the Apollo cabin.

but I don't know. I can't do poetry very well. And I'm not sure I want to be related to Octavian."

"Can't blame you," Percy said. "But you're excellent with the bow the way you pegged those gorgons? Forget what other people think."

Frank's face turned as red as Dakota's Kool-Aid. "Wish I could. They all think I should be a sword fighter because I'm big and bulky." He looked down at his body, like he couldn't quite believe it was his.

"They say I'm too stocky for an archer. Maybe if my dad would ever claim me "

They ate in silence for a few minutes. A dad who wouldn't claim you Hazel knew that feeling. She sensed Percy could relate, too.

"My gods, he got claim in a few days!" protested some campers.

"You asked about the Fifth," she said at last. "Why it's the worst cohort. That actually started way before us."

She pointed to the back wall, where the legion's standards were on display. "See the empty pole in the middle?"

"The eagle," Percy said.

Hazel was stunned. "How'd you know?"

Percy shrugged. "Vitellius was talking about how the legion lost its eagle a long time ago the first time, he said. He acted like it was a huge disgrace. I'm guessing that's what's missing. And from the way you and Reyna were talking earlier, I'm guessing your eagle got lost a second time, more recently, and it had something to do with the Fifth Cohort."

Hazel made a mental note not to underestimate Percy again. When he'd first arrived, she'd thought he was a little goofy from the questions he'd asked about the Feast of Tuna and all but clearly he was smarter than he let on.

"He's actually pretty intelligent, but he acts so dumb sometimes. I wonder if he does it just to annoy me. The guy has a lot going for him. He's courageous; he's got a sense of humor " Annabeth explained while the Hunters gagged.

"You're right," she said. "That's exactly what happened."

"So what is this eagle, anyway? Why is it a big deal?"

Frank looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping. "It's the symbol of the whole camp a big eagle made of gold. It's supposed to protect us in battle and make our enemies afraid. Each legion's eagle gave it all sorts of power, and ours came from Jupiter himself. Supposedly Julius Caesar nicknamed our legion 'Fulminata' armed with lightning because of what the eagle could do."

"I don't like lightning," Percy said.

"Means he doesn't like me?" asked Jason.

"Don't worry, Percy and I get along," explained Thalia.

Jason seemed relieve until Grover cough "Sort of "

"Yeah, well," Hazel said, "it didn't make us invincible. The Twelfth lost its eagle the first time way back in ancient days, during the Jewish Rebellion."

"I think I saw a movie like that," Percy said.

"He remembers a movie but he doesn't remember us!" cried the campers.

Hazel shrugged. "Could be. There have been lots of books and movies about legions losing their eagles. Unfortunately it happened quite a few times. The eagle was so important well, archaeologists have never recovered a single eagle from ancient Rome. Each legion guarded theirs to the last man, because it was charged with power from the gods. They'd rather hide it or melt it down than surrender it to an enemy. The Twelfth was lucky the first time. We got our eagle back. But the second time "

"You guys were there?" Percy asked .They both shook their heads.

"I'm almost as new as you." Frank tapped his probatioplate. "Just got here last month. But everyone's heard the story. It's bad luck to even talk about this. There was this huge expedition to Alaska back in the eighties. "

"That prophecy you noticed in the temple," Hazel continued, "the one about the seven demigods and the Doors of Death? Our senior praetor at the time was Michael Varus, from the Fifth Cohort. Back then the Fifth was the best in camp. He thought it would bring glory to the legion if he could figure out the prophecy and make it come true save the world from storm and fire and all that. He talked to the augur, and the augur said the answer was in Alaska. But he warned Michael it wasn't time yet. The prophecy wasn't for him."

"Yeah, that time was The First Great Prophecy was going " explained Annabeth.

"What's The First Great Prophecy?" asked Leo.

"Tell you later "

"But he went anyway," Percy guessed. "What happened?"

Frank lowered his voice. "Long, gruesome story. Almost the entire Fifth Cohort was wiped out. Most of legion's Imperial gold weapons were lost, along with the eagle. The survivors went crazy or refused to talk about what had attacked them."

I know, Hazel thought solemnly. But she kept silent.

Everyone looked at Nico, "Alcyoneus," he answered.

"Since the eagle was lost," Frank continued, "the camp has been getting weaker. Quests are more dangerous. Monsters attack the borders more often. Morale is lower. The last month or so, things have been getting much worse, much faster."

"And the Fifth Cohort took the blame," Percy guessed. "So now everyone thinks we're cursed."

"Yep " mumbled Jason.

Hazel realized her gumbo was cold. She sipped a spoonful, but the comfort food didn't taste very comforting. "We've been the outcasts of the legion since well, since the Alaska disaster. Our reputation got better when Jason became praetor "

"The kid who's missing?" Percy asked.

Jason sighed.

"Yeah," Frank said. "I never met him. Before my time. But I hear he was a good leader. He practically grew up in the Fifth Cohort. He didn't care what people thought about us. He started to rebuild our reputation.

Thank you, Jason thought.

Then he disappeared."

"Which put us back at square one," Hazel said bitterly. "Made us look cursed all over again. I'm sorry, Percy. Now you know what you've gotten yourself into."

Percy sipped his blue soda and gazed thoughtfully across the dining hall. "I don't even know where I come from but I've got a feeling this isn't the first time I've been an underdog." He focused on Hazel and managed a smile. "Besides, joining the legion is better than being chased through the wilderness by monsters.

"The wilderness wasn't so bad," said the Hunters.

"You had a goddess to protect you!" protested the Apollo cabin.

"What's your point?" Thalia asked and raised her spear.

"Um, nothing!" The consoler decided to say.

I've got myself some new friends. Maybe together we can turn things around for the Fifth Cohort, huh?"

A horn blew at the end of the hall. The officers at the praetor's table got to their feet even Dakota, his mouth vampire-red from Kool-Aid.

"The games begin!" Reyna announced. The campers cheered and rushed to collect their equipment from the stacks along the walls.

"So we're the attacking team?" Percy asked over the noise. "Is that good?"

Hazel shrugged. "Good news: we get the elephant. Bad news "

"Let me guess," said Percy. "The Fifth Cohort always loses."

"Seriously?" said the Nike cabin.

"Yeah, you guys always win, stupid goddess of victory," said the Nemesis cabin, "Its unbalance!"

Frank slapped Percy on the shoulder. "I love this guy. Come on, new friend. Let's go chalk up my thirteenth defeat in a row!"

"Seriously? That was his thirteenth defeat? And it has to be in a row?" One of the Nike cabin's camper raised an eyebrow.

"You guys never lose!"

Everyone went back to their cabin. Jason, Piper and Leo walked up to Annabeth with Rachel by her side.

"What's The First Great Prophecy?" asked Leo.

"Ok, The First Great Prophecy is a prophecy given by the Oracle seventy years ago. Around World War II, when the sons of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades fought each other, the Oracle foretold of a future event that would end their affairs with mortal women. They tried to not have any children and they failed. Its goes like this

A half-blood of the eldest gods,

Shall reach sixteen against all odds.

And see the world in endless sleep.

The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap.

A single choice shall end his days,

Olympus to preserve or raze."

"That's was a lot a pressure " said Jason, "Luckily I'm not 16 yet, But what about Thaila?"

"Thalia, Luke, son of Hermes and I ran away from home, we met each other. Once we reached camp, a hoard of monsters attacked and Thalia sacrificing her life on Half-Blood Hill to protect us. Zeus took pity on her and turned Thalia into a pine tree. It been protecting the camp ever since," Annabeth explained pointing at the tree.

"Yeah but how ,"

Annabeth cursed in Ancient Greek then her expression soften, "Luke betrayed us and poisoned the tree. Percy, Clarisse, Grover and I found the Golden Fleece and heal it. Thalia was bought back to life and joined the hunt before she turned 16, making Percy the eldest of the big three."

Rachel continued "Percy hit his 16th birthday after the Battle of Manhattan, despite all his near death experiences. Morpheus put every mortal in Manhattan to sleep."The hero" does not refer to Percy, but to Luke, whose soul was reaped by Annabeth's knife, cursed because of a broken promise. Percy's choice to give Luke the knife allowing Luke to kill himself and therefore killing Kronos ended his days."

"When is Percy's birthday?" asked Jason.

"August 18th," Annabeth answered.

"The same day I headed the Roman attack on Mount Tamalpais and defeated Krios by himself and became the praetor of the Twelfth Legion," mumbled Jason. Annabeth studied Jason trying to pull his entire history,

"One titian only?" she asked.

"Yeah,"

"Percy fought four, Kronos, Atlas, Hyperion, and Iapetus."

"He what!" cried Jason, Piper and Leo.

Annabeth and Rachel smiled and walked away leaving Jason, Piper and Leo in a daze.


	9. Chapter 9

THE SON OF NEPTUNE

IX Frank

Leo was now sweating; he tried hard to lift this engine to the boat.

"Ok," Leo muttered to himself, he had both his hands under the engine. "One, two "

"Three!"

He used all his might, suddenly the thousand pounds engine became lighter and Leo looked up and saw a guy was taller than any basketball player. Leo tried to look higher and he saw calf brown eyes, no singular, 'eye' right in the middle of his forehead!

"My gods, you're a Cyclops!" Leo shouted but the other didn't seem scare like its common there a Cyclops came to visit. Tyson looked confused, "Is it bad?"

Leo got to his feet and pulled a big hammer from his tool belt. "Leo, don't!" his half brothers and sisters shouted, Annabeth also saw the problem quickly dropped her blueprints and shield Tyson from Leo. Leo was confused, "Why is a monster doing here?" he demanded. "Calm down, Leo, he's harmless. This is Tyson," Annabeth introduced. Tyson carried the engine like a rice pack on his shoulder like the weight didn't bother him at all. Tyson grinned like a child showed his teeth with peanut butter. "I'm Tyson, you're small." he said took his massive hand out. "I'm Leo," Leo was kind of offense about the comment, but hey Tyson was two meters tall. Leo awkwardly shook his hand as he let down his hammer.

"He's Percy's half brother," Annabeth explained.

"He had a Cyclops for a half brother?"

"Long story,"

Leo decided to drop the subject. Annabeth turned to Tyson, "Tyson how about you help Leo with the Argo II,"

Tyson pointed at the half made boat, "Big ship?"

"Yes," Annabeth nodded.

Leo gave Annabeth a look like, why do you leave me with a baby monster. Annabeth rolled her eyes like if saying you'll get along just fine, I'm busy!

Just like that Annabeth left Tyson with Leo.

"So, you're big and strong?" Leo asked.

"Yep," Tyson nodded. "Tyson is big and you are small!"

Leo tried a smile. What came out was a tortured smile to be exact. Get along fine? I'm tortured here! Leo screamed in the back of his mind.

After some time, Leo found out that Tyson wasn't so bad. He liked it when Tyson could create a war shield within a half an hour. Tyson was extremely helpful; right now one of the engines was in place. Then they must find a way to lift the others part of the engines. Leo and Tyson were now examined the blue print hoping there's no mistake while they checked around the ship.

Jason and Piper were just hanging around hoping to find Leo as they meet up for dinner. Jason was still trying to get over that he almost killed a giant hellhound with a size of a tank. The hellhound was named Mrs. O' Leary, Percy's pet hellhound. Seriously, a hellhound named Mrs. O' Leary? Jason thought. Nico said is a long story, while defending Mrs. O' Leary.

Jason bonked into someone way taller than him. Jason looked up and saw a Cyclops. Jason unleashed his gladius as Piper pulled up Katoptris.

"Chill, guys. This is Tyson," Leo introduced. "He's friendly,"

"But he's a Cyclops," Piper squeaked.

Tyson looked at Piper and said, "You're pretty."

"Uh, thanks "

"Greek Cyclopes are different; they work at the forges of the gods" explained Leo, "Well mostly."

"Mostly?" Jason asked.

"Yep, the other's are like Ma Gasket!"

The coach horn blew; the campers at Bunker 9 stopped their work and went on to the dinning pavilion.

At the campfire, the campers dragged Clovis up to the middle so he can read the next chapter.

"Why does he have to read?" complained one of the campers who were dragging Clovis.

"Zzzz "

"Wake up, egg head!" shouted another camper.

"What?" Clovis woke up in a daze.

"Read the book!" shouted Clarisse.

Clovis yawned and began to read.

IX Frank

AS HE MARCHED TO THE WAR GAMES, Frank replayed the day in his mind. Hecouldn't believe how close he'd come todeath.

Nico dung his ear, as if trying to hear a signal. The campers beside him leaned away as if afraid he would stick what came out of his ear on to them.

That morning on sentry duty, before Percy showed up, Frank had almost told Hazel his secret. The two of them had been standing for hours in the chilly fog, watching the commuter traffic on Highway 24. Hazel had been complaining about the cold.

"I'd give anything to be warm," she said, her teeth chattering. "I wish we had a fire."

Just then Leo's hand blazed with warm tender, scaring off half of his cabin mates.

Even with her armor on, she looked great. Frank liked the way her cinnamon toast colored hair curled around the edges of her helmet, and the way her chin dimpled when she frowned. She was tiny compared to Frank, which made him feel like a big clumsy ox. He wanted to put his arms around her to warm her up, but he'd never do that.

Nico suddenly sat straight, murmuring some cruses to Frank, something about "Stay away of my sister ..."

She'd probably hit him, and he'd lose the only friend he had at camp.

I could make a really impressive fire, he thought.

"He's a fire user!" exclaimed Leo grinning and lighting his fingertips again. "So I'm not the only unlucky one,"

Of course, it would only burn for a few minutes, and then I'd die.

"So he's not," Leo said in disappointment and the fire died.

It was scary that he even considered it. Hazel had that effect on him. Whenever she wanted something, he had the irrational urge to provide it. He wanted to be the old-fashioned knight riding to her rescue, which was stupid, as she was way more capable at everything than he was.

The huntresses smiled and said "See? Who need boys?"

He imagined what his grandmother would say: Frank Zhang riding to the rescue?Ha! He'd fall off his horse and breakhis neck.

"She has a point," murmured Nico under his breath.

Hard to believe it had been only six weeks since he'd left his grandmother's house six weeks since his mom's funeral.

Everything had happened since then: wolves arriving at his grandmother's door, the journey to Camp Jupiter, the weeks he'd spent in the Fifth Cohort trying not to be a complete failure. Through it all, he'd kept the half-burned piece of firewood wrapped in a cloth in his coat pocket.

"Firewood?" asked the campers.

Keep it close, his grandmother had warned. As long as it is safe, you are safe.

The campers were confused even more.

The problem was that it burned so easily. He remembered the trip south from Vancouver. When the temperature dropped below freezing near Mount Hood, Frank had brought out the piece of tinder and held it in his hands, imagining how nice it would be to have some fire. Immediately, the charred end blazed with a searing yellow flame.

"Cool," said Leo, "a lighter!"

"Like you need it, repair boy!" said Piper.

It lit up the night and warmed Frank to the bone, but he could feel his life slipping away, as if he were being consumed rather than the wood.

"So he's life depend on burned stick?" asked Tyson.

"Yes, big guy!" exclaimed an Ares kid.

He'd thrust the flame into a snow bank. For a horrible moment it kept burning. When it finally went out, Frank got his panic under control. He wrapped the piece of wood and put it back in his coat pocket, determined not to bring it out again. But he couldn't forget it.

It was as though someone had said, "Whatever you do, don't think about that stick bursting into flame!"

So of course, that's all he thought about.

There's been an awkward silent around the campfire. The campers can only hear the creaky of the hearth and some snoring?

"CLOVIS, WAKE UP!" screamed the campers.

"What" moaned the son of Hypnos, "Oh, yeah?" Then he continued.

On sentry duty with Hazel, he would try to take his mind off it. He loved spending time with her. He asked her about growing up in New Orleans, but she got edgy at his questions, so they made small talk instead. Just for fun, they tried to speak French to each other. Hazel had some Creole blood on her mother's side. Frank had taken French in school. Neither of them was very fluent, and Louisiana French was so different from Canadian French it was almost impossible to converse. When Frank asked Hazel how her beef was feeling today, and she replied that his shoe was green, they decided to give up.

"French wasn't that hard to learn," protested the Aphrodite's children.

"You're born with that talent!" protested the Athena cabin.

Then Percy Jackson had arrived.

"Yeah, Percy's here," cried the Hermes cabin.

"Shut up!" cried the Ares cabin.

Sure, Frank had seen kids fight monsters before. He'd fought plenty of them himself on his journey from Vancouver. But he'd never seen gorgons. He'd never seen a goddess in person. And the way Percy had controlled the Little Tiber wow. Frank wished he had powers like that.

"Nah," mumbled Jason.

He could still feel the gorgons' claws pressing into his arms and smell their snaky breath like dead mice and poison. If not for Percy, those grotesque hags would have carried him away. He'd be a pile of bones in the back of a Bargain Mart by now.

After the incident at the river, Reyna had sent Frank to the armory, which had given him way too much time to think.

While he polished swords, he remembered Juno, warning them to unleash Death.

Unfortunately Frank had a pretty good idea of what the goddess meant. He had tried to hide his shock when Juno had appeared, but she looked exactly like his grandmother had described right down to the goatskin cape.

She chose your path years ago, Grandmother had told him. And it will not beeasy.

Frank glanced at his bow in the corner of the armory. He'd feel better if Apollo would claim him as a son.

"That big guy is not our brother!" shouted the Apollo cabin.

"Shut up," said the Ares cabin.

Frank had been sure his godly parent would speak up on his sixteenth birthday, which had passed two weeks ago.

"Someone is not holding their oath," said a Nemesis's child.

"I think the oath was sworn by the Greek gods not Roman," explained Annabeth.

Sixteen was an important milestone for Romans. It had been Frank's first birthday at camp. But nothing had happened. Now Frank hoped he would be claimed on the Feast of Fortuna, though from what Juno had said, they'd be in a battle for their lives on that day.

His father had to be Apollo.

"No," the Apollo cabin said.

Archery was the only thing Frank was good at. Years ago, his mother had told him that their family name, Zhang, meant "master of bows" in Chinese. That must have been a hint about his dad.

Frank put down his polishing rags. He looked at the ceiling. "Please, Apollo, if you're my dad, tell me. I want to be an archer like you."

"No, you don't," a voice grumbled.

Frank jumped out of his seat. Vitellius, the Fifth Cohort's Lar, was shimmering behind him. His full name was Gaius Vitellius Reticulus, but the other cohorts called him Vitellius the Ridiculous.

"Oh, I remember him," said Jason, "He's crazy."

"Hazel Levesque sent me to check on you," Vitellius said, hiking up his sword belt. "Good thing, too. Look at the state of this armor!"

Vitellius wasn't one to talk. His toga was baggy, his tunic barely fit over his belly, and his scabbard fell off his belt every three seconds, but Frank didn't bother pointing that out.

"Seriously, who wears toga these days?" said Drew "They're five thousand years out of fashion."

"As for archers," the ghost said, "they're wimps! Back in my day, archery was a job for barbarians.

The Apollo and Artemis cabins stood up and started to protest. For once they agreed in something, thought Chiron, and it has to be this

A good Roman should be in the fray, gutting his enemy with spear and sword like a civilized man!

The Ares cabin cheered.

That's how we did it in the Punic Wars.

"Punic Wars?" asked a camper.

"It sounds like 'puny' wars!" Travis pointed out.

Annabeth glared at Travis.

"The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 BC to 146 BC," before Annabeth could finish her explanations. Travis cut in and said

"I don't want to know, or I'll end up like Clovis over there."

"What? Did anyone call me?" Clovis woke from his slumber.

"Keep reading, Clovis!" said Mark.

Roman up, boy!"

Frank sighed. "I thought you were in Caesar's army."

"I was!"

"Vitellius, Caesar was hundreds of years after the Punic Wars. You couldn't have been alive that long."

"Questioning my honor?" Vitellius looked so mad, his purple aura glowed. He drew his ghostly gladiusand yelled, "Take that!"

Nico was totally annoyed and mumbled, "Stupid Lares,"

He ran the sword, which was about as deadly as a laser pointer, through Frank's chest a few times.

"Ouch," Frank said, just to be nice.

"You shouldn't encourage them," advised Nico.

Vitellius looked satisfied and put his sword away. "Perhaps you'll think twice about doubting your elders next time! Now it was your sixteenth birthday recently, wasn't it?"

Frank nodded. He wasn't sure how Vitellius knew this, since Frank hadn't told anyone except Hazel, but ghosts had ways of finding out secrets. Eavesdropping while invisible was probably one of them.

Some looked at Nico as if afraid he would send ghosts to eavesdrop them, then again, he probably did.

"So Annabeth lost to a ghost?" said Travis.

"Who says? I have your secret right here," Annabeth protested holding a tape. "Your whole conversation with Katie!"

Travis and Katie looked like they were hit by a car, "How "

Annabeth made a sly smile, pulling out her cap, vanished and reappear again.

"Cool, I want one!"

"Shut up, Leo!" they screamed at him in union.

"So that's why you're such a grumpy gladiator," the Lar said. "Understandable. The sixteenth birthday is your day of manhood! Your godly parent should have claimed you, no doubt about it, even if with only a small omen. Perhaps he thought you were younger. You look younger, you know, with that pudgy baby face."

"He's has a point," said Nico.

"You're mean!" A daughter of Tyche said and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Thanks for reminding me," Frank muttered.

"Yes, I remember my sixteenth," Vitellius said happily. "Wonderful omen! A chicken in my underpants."

The campers spit off their food as Clovis read this.

"Excuse me? Did he just say chickens?" Clarisse demanded.

"Excuse me?"

"Wow, you guys said nearly the same thing!" Connor noticed.

"Brothers and sisters must think alike, right bro?" Travis said.

"Shut up, Stoll! That puny archer is not my brother! We don't know who his parent is anyways! Might really be Apollo!" Clarisse growled.

"What's wrong of being an archer?" The Apollo cabin and hunters demanded and raised their weapons. "He's not my brother!" someone shouted.

"You guys are big meanies!" The Tyche cabin shouted at them.

"Children, no fighting allowed or you won't any s'mores for a whole week!" Chiron threatened them.

Vitellius puffed up with pride. "That's right! I was at the river changing my clothes for my Liberalia. Rite of passage into manhood, you know. We did things properly back then. I'd taken off my childhood toga and was washing up to don the adult one. Suddenly, a pure-white chicken ran out of nowhere, dove into my loincloth, and ran off with it. I wasn't wearing it at the time."

"My gods!" said the young campers.

"Well, that was a bit too much of the info we needed!" Chris grumbled.

"That's good," Frank said. "And can I just say: Too much information?"

"Mm." Vitellius wasn't listening. "That was the sign I was descended from Aesculapius, the god of medicine. I took my cognomen, my third name, Reticulus, because it meant undergarment, to remind me of the blessed day when a chicken stole my loincloth."

"Uh, is his name 'Mr. Boxers?" Leo asked but no one dared to answer.

"So your name means Mr. Underwear?"

Some campers snickered.

"Praise the gods! I became a surgeon in the legion, and the rest is history." He spread his arms generously. "Don't give up, boy. Maybe your father is running late. Most omens are not as dramatic as a chicken, of course. I knew a fellow once who got a dung beetle "

"I don't feel like eating," said Malcolm putting down his marshmallows and some nodded too.

"Thanks, Vitellius," Frank said. "But I have to finish polishing this armor "

"And the gorgon's blood?"

(A/N: PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS PART IF YOU ARE EATING! THANK YOU! WE MADE UP THE RECIPES FOR THE POTION! DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!)

"I can't stand this anymore!" Miranda said and rushed to the toilet followed by her sisters trying to help her before she could, you know

"What's wrong with blood?" Lou asked.

"We use them all the time for potions." Andro continued.

"So, the curing potion you gave me for hiccups has bl-blood in it?" Malcolm asked.

"Yeah, why?" They two sisters agreed.

"W-What type of blood?"

"Bat bloods and some fly's legs," They answered.

Malcolm looked horrified, he took a plastic bag out and, well, he had a tender stomach.

"Remind us never to use your potions!" The Aphrodite cabin screeched.

"Too bad though," Andro started.

"We found a recipe that can clear away zits and freckles in five seconds." Lou ended. "But it contains butterfly wings, peacock feathers, rabbit's bloods and some more of our secret ingredients."

Some passed but some were will to try. Piper didn't think it was necessary.

There's been an awkward silent around the campfire. The campers can only hear the creaking of the hearth and some snoring, AGAIN?

"CLOVIS, WAKE UP!" screamed the campers.

"What?" moaned the son of Hypnos, "Oh, yeah, right, sorry, again!" Then he continued.

Frank froze. He hadn't told anyone about that. As far as he knew, only Percy had seen him pocket the vials at the river, and they hadn't had a chance to talk about it.

"Come now," Vitellius chided. "I'm a healer. I know the legends about gorgon's blood. Show me the vials."

Reluctantly, Frank brought out the two ceramic flasks he'd retrieved from the Little Tiber. Spoils of war were often left behind when a monster dissolved sometimes a tooth, or a weapon, or even the monster's entire head.

"Please don't remind me about Medusa," muttered Grover. "Crashing into a concert bear was not my idea of fun but whacking her was fun!"

Frank had known what the two vials were immediately. By tradition they belonged to Percy, who had killed the gorgons, but Frank couldn't help thinking, What if I could use them?

"Yes." Vitellius studied the vials approvingly. "Blood taken from the right side of a gorgon's body can cure any disease, even bring the dead back to life.

The Apollo cabin listened intensively, hoping to find a cure for all dieses.

The Hecate cabin eyes gleamed with interest.

If only one of them could have it

The goddess Minerva once gave a vial of it to my divine ancestor, Aesculapius. But blood taken from the left side of a gorgon instantly fatal. So, which is which?"

"Oh, don't worry, boy." The ghost chuckled. "I won't tell anyone. I'm a Lar, a protector of the cohort! I wouldn't do anything to endanger you."

"You stabbed me through the chest with your sword."

"Good point," Annabeth agreed.

"Trust me, boy! I have sympathy for you, carrying the curse of that Argonaut."

"The ... what?"

"Argonaut," explained Annabeth, "A crew of sailors and army that help Jason to find The Golden Fleece "

"Got it!" said Connor pointing at Thalia's pine tree, "The big golden floor mat over there,"

"'The big golden floor mat,' had a hard time to get here!" protested Clarisse, Grover, and Annabeth.

"Yep," agreed Tyson.

Vitellius waved away the question. "Don't be modest. You've got ancient roots. Greek as well as Roman. It's no wonder Juno " He tilted his head, as if listening to a voice from above.

"It was probably Hera giving him orders," Nico said.

His face went slack. His entire aura flickered green. "But I've said enough! At any rate, I'll let you work out who gets the gorgon's blood. I suppose that newcomer Percy could use it too, with his memory problem."

Frank wondered what Vitellius had been about to say and what had made him so scared, but he got the feeling that for once Vitellius was going to keep his mouth shut.

He looked down at the two vials. He hadn't even thought of Percy's needing them. He felt guilty that he'd been intending to use the blood for himself. "Yeah. Of course. He should have it."

"Ah, but if you want my advice " Vitellius looked up nervously again. "You should both wait on that gorgon blood. If my sources are right, you're going to need it on your quest."

"Quest?"

The doors of the armory flew open.

Reyna stormed in with her metal greyhounds. Vitellius vanished. He might have liked chickens, but he did not like the praetor's dogs.

"Frank." Reyna looked troubled. "That's enough with the armor. Go find Hazel. Get Percy Jackson down here. He's been up there too long. I don't want Octavian " She hesitated. "Just get Percy down here."

"What will Octavian do?" asked Annabeth.

"You don't want to know," said Jason.

So Frank had run all the way to Temple Hill.

Walking back, Percy had asked tons of questions about Hazel's brother, Nico, but Frank didn't know that much.

"Thanks gods," said Nico "Why Percy can't give me any privacy,"

"He's okay," Frank said. "He's not like Hazel "

Nico crossed his arms.

"How do you mean?" Percy asked.

"Oh, um " Frank coughed. He'd meant that Hazel was better looking and nicer,

"Excuse me?" said Nico, "I'm nice!"

"Yeah right," somebody called.

but he decided not to say that. "Nico is kind of mysterious. He makes everybody else nervous, being the son of Pluto, and all."

"No duh," Nico murmured.

"But not you?"

Frank shrugged. "Pluto's cool. It's not his fault he runs the Underworld. He just got bad luck when the gods were dividing up the world, you know? Jupiter got the sky, Neptune got the sea, and Pluto got the shaft."

"Death doesn't scare you?"

Frank almost wanted to laugh. Not at all! Got a match?

"Me," answered Leo and Nico. Leo's finger was lit up, while Nico pulled out a box of matches.

"Why do you have a box of matches?" Annabeth asked.

"Worst case scenario!"

Instead he said, "Back in the old times, like the Greek times, when Pluto was called Hades, he was more of a death god. When he became Roman, he got more I don't know, respectable. He became the god of wealth, too. Everything under the earth belongs to him. So I don't think of him as being real scary."

Percy scratched his head. "How does a god become Roman? If he's Greek, wouldn't he stay Greek?"

Frank walked a few steps, thinking about that. Vitellius would've given Percy an hour-long lecture on the subject, probably with a PowerPoint presentation,

"Please don't," said Jason.

"I bet it was far worse than the camp's" said Nico.

but Frank took his best shot. "The way Romans saw it, they adopted the Greek stuff and perfected it."

"Like there was something wrong with it?" asked Annabeth and everyone looked at Jason. Jason sank to his seat and eyeing Clovis to continue.

Percy made a sour face. "Perfected it? Like there was something wrong with it?"

"Wow,"

"Shut up!"

Frank remembered what Vitellius had said: You've got ancient roots. Greek as well as Roman. His grandmother had said something similar.

"I don't know," he admitted. "Rome was more successful than Greece. They made this huge empire. The gods became a bigger deal in Roman times more powerful and widely known. That's why they're still around today. So many civilizations base themselves on Rome. The gods changed to Roman because that's where the centre of power was. Jupiter was well, more responsible as a Roman god than he had been when he was Zeus. Mars became a lot more important and disciplined."

"And Juno became a hippie bag lady," Percy noted.

Annabeth and Thaila grinned.

"So you're saying the old Greek gods they just changed permanently to Roman? There's nothing left of the Greek?"

"No, we're still here," said Annabeth.

"Stop answering the books questions," Malcolm said.

"What?" Annabeth doing her big-innocent-grey-eyes-thing.

"Uh " Frank looked around to make sure there were no campers or Lares nearby, but the main gates were still a hundred yards away. "That's a sensitive topic. Some people say Greek influence is still around, like it's still a part of the gods' personalities. I've heard stories of demigods occasionally leaving Camp Jupiter. They reject Roman training and try to follow the older Greek style like being solo heroes instead of working as a team the way the legion does.

Everyone looked around to find Roman demigods except Jason.

And back in the ancient days, when Rome fell, the eastern half of the empire survived the Greek half."

Percy stared at him. "I didn't know that."

The Athena cabin quickly ran though history books around them. Why they had books around them? Don't ask.

"Found it," cried Annabeth. Before she could explain, Clovis woke up and began to read.

"It was called Byzantium." Frank liked saying that word. It sounded cool.

"Greeks are cool!" Connor and Travis said in union.

"Jinx, you owe me a soda!" Travis pointed at Connor.

"The eastern empire lasted another thousand years, but it was always more Greek than Roman. For those of us who follow the Roman way, it's kind of a sore subject. That's why, whatever country we settle in, Camp Jupiter is always in the west the Roman part of the territory. The east is considered bad luck."

"Hey," said the campers.

"Then why did you say west is bad luck?" Jason asked.

"Because that's where Mount. Othrys is." Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"Oh, right. I've lead the Romans there once."

"Huh." Percy frowned.

Frank couldn't blame him for feeling confused. The Greek/Roman stuff gave him a headache, too.

They reached the gates. "I'll take you to the baths to get you cleaned up," Frank said. "But first about those vials I found at the river."

"Gorgon's blood," Percy said. "One vial heals. One is deadly poison."

Frank's eyes widened. "You know about that? Listen, I wasn't going to keep them. I just "

"I know why you did it, Frank."

"You do?"

"Yeah." Percy smiled. "If I'd come into camp carrying a vial of poison, that would've looked bad. You were trying to protect me."

"Frank and Percy are nice!" Tyson exclaimed.

"Percy's too nice." Annabeth corrected. "The Romans won't like that."

"So you mean I'm not nice?" Jason asked.

"No, I don't mean you. Uh, Octavian for example, he's not nice." Annabeth explained.

"He slaughtered the teddy bears! We hate him!" The Hypnos cabin cried.

"Oh right." Frank wiped the sweat off his palms. "But if we could figure out which vial was which, it might heal your memory." Percy's smile faded. He gazed across the hills. "Maybe I guess. But you should hang on to those vials for now. There's a battle coming. We may need them to save lives."

Frank stared at him, a little bit in awe. Percy had a chance to get his memory back, and he was willing to wait in case someone else needed the vial more? Romans were supposed to be unselfish and help their comrades, but Frank wasn't sure anyone else at camp would have made that choice.

"So you don't remember anything?" Frank asked. "Family, friends?"

Percy fingered the clay beads around his neck. "Only glimpses. Murky stuff. A girlfriend I thought she'd be at camp." He looked at Frank carefully, as if making a decision. "Her name was Annabeth. You don't know her, do you?"

Annabeth looked down praying to the gods that Percy will remember her clearly. Her cabin mates patted her shoulders to comfort her.

Frank shook his head. "I know everybody at camp, but no Annabeth. What about your family? Is your mom mortal?"

"I guess so she's probably worried out of her mind. Does your mom get to see you much?"

Frank stopped at the bathhouse entrance. He grabbed some towels from the supply shed. "She died." Percy knit his brow. "How?"

"Him and his touchy questions!" Annabeth grumbled.

Usually Frank would lie. He'd say an accident and shut off the conversation.

Otherwise his emotions got out of control. He couldn't cry at Camp Jupiter. He couldn't show weakness. But with Percy, Frank found it easier to talk.

"I wonder why." Piper thought.

"He's a good listener and a good friend," Annabeth explained.

"She died in the war," he said. "Afghanistan."

"She was in the military?"

"Canadian. Yeah."

"Canada? I didn't know "

"Most Americans don't." Frank sighed. "But yeah, Canada has troops there. My mom was a captain. She was one of the first women to die in combat. She saved some soldiers who were pinned down by enemy fire. She she didn't make it. The funeral was right before I came down here."

Percy nodded. He didn't ask for more details, which Frank appreciated. He didn't say he was sorry, or make any of the well meaning comments Frank always hated: Oh, you poor guy. That must be so hard on you. You have my deepest condolences.

It was like Percy had faced death before,

"He did, a lot too." Grover muttered.

like he knew about grief. What mattered was listening. You didn't need to say you were sorry. The only thing that helped was moving on moving forward.

"How about you show me the baths now?" Percy suggested. "I'm filthy."

"Of course he is!" Clarisse grunted.

Frank managed a smile. "Yeah. You kind of are."

As they walked into the steam room, Frank thought of his grandmother, his mom, and his cursed childhood, thanks to Juno and her piece of firewood. He almost wished he could forget his past, the way Percy had.

"No you don't! It makes you life a big 'fill-in-the-blank'!" Jason disapproved.

"Jason, dude, you're uh talking to a book." Leo pointed out helpfully.

"Annabeth does too." Rachel said, she'd been so silent everyone nearly forgot she was there.

Annabeth grumbled at them to shut up while Jason glared at Leo who was shooting finger guns back at him.

A/n: Sorry for not updating! I was busy [Andro: and lazy!] (Me: I'm not!). Sorry again, that was my sister.

So, review my story or you won't get another chapter! Mwhahahaha!

[Andro: You should leave the evil laugh to me, Selene!] 


	10. Chapter 10

THE SON OF NEPTUNE

Piper wasn't having a good time. It was the third time in a row that she got beaten by Annabeth.

"A knife is good for close-range combat. You have to be very clever and fast and very skilled to fight with a knife," Annabeth explained as she slashed her knife off Piper's hand and her knife at neck.

"Very clever, huh?" Piper asked, looking and the reflection of Katoptris, she saw herself confused as she felt into a pile of mud.

Annabeth used a cloth to rub her knife and showed her more moves on how to use her dagger. "The shorter the blade, the closer you need to get to your enemy. Lucky you might defect him, not, you "

"Let me guess," said Piper "You'll die,"

"Pretty much," she said as she cut off another dummy head. "Maybe you can start with the beginning,"

"The beginning," Piper sighed. "The walking dummies?"

Annabeth nodded. "Or you can start with the Apollo cabin," she suggested "They're easy to waste,"

Piper let go a breath how can she fright the Giants or Gaia like this? Even Leo could beat her up, getting burn was not fun.

"Nah," she said, "I like to start at the top,"

"Suit yourself," Annabeth said as she stood in position, Piper hold a tight grip on her dagger. Ok, relax, she thought as she replayed what she had learnt over the months. Annabeth made the first move; Piper defected Annabeth's knife and tried to kick her to lose her concentrations. Annabeth was to smart, she jumped. Piper forgot what's she's doing soon Annabeth had her knife on her chest.

One look at her reflection on Katoptris, Piper saw a girl determine to win no matter how inexperience she was. "Hah," she yelled, cutting Annabeth's wrist, hoping it wasn't deep. When Annabeth was distracted, Piper pulled Annabeth's arms to her back and pushed her on the ground.

"My gods," Piper said as she found out what she had done, "I'm so sorry, I don't know what I was doing."

"Sorry?" Annabeth's eyes were stormy as ever then she smiled, "That was wonderful!"

Piper was in a shock she thought Annabeth will dislike her and never befriend with her. "I...I..."

Then Piper noticed Annabeth's wrist was bleeding, and got some nectar to her. "I was so sorry "

"Never mind," Annabeth said the cut was nothing, "Tomorrow you can start with a whole grope."

"Grope?" Piper swallowed, fighting Earthborn was easy, and they're dumb founded when they looked at her. But a grope of highly trained demigods, that might not interested in girls. Piper didn't know that she could stand a chance.

Annabeth chuckled "Relax, how about we start with a bunch of Hermes' kids, huh?"

Piper took another look at Katoptris; a girl was climbing to her victory. Maybe, it won't be too bad. She put on a confident smile, "I can't wait!"

Annabeth smiled, "Great, we need to get you ready because Capture the Flag is tomorrow!"

Piper frowned, "You got to be kidding "

"Come on," said Annabeth as she pushed Piper back to the Aphrodite cabin "Dinner is about to start."

"Mr. Rainbow, it's your turn!" cried Connor. Butch grumbled some cruses to Connor that he'll be color blind. Butch grabbed the book and began to read.

X Frank

FRANK DIDN'T REMEMBER MUCH ABOUT the funeral itself.

Nico dung his ear, as if trying to hear a signal. The campers beside him leaned away as if afraid he would stick what came out of his ear on to them.

But he remembered the hours leading up to it his grandmother coming out into the backyard to find him shooting arrows at her porcelain collection.

"Well he didn't appreciate a good art," exclaimed Will.

His grandmother's house was a rambling gray stone mansion on twelve acres in North Vancouver. Her backyard ran straight into Lynn Canyon Park.

The morning was cold and drizzly, but Frank didn't feel the chill. He wore a black wool suit and a black overcoat that had once belonged to his grandfather. Frank had been startled and upset to find that they fit him fine. The clothes smelled like wet mothballs and jasmine. The fabric was itchy but warm. With his bow and quiver, he probably looked like a very dangerous butler.

"Terrifying," joked the Ares cabin.

He'd loaded some of his grandmother's porcelain in a wagon and toted it into the yard, where he set up targets on old fence posts at the edge of the property. He'd been shooting so long, his fingers were starting to lose their feeling. With every arrow, he imagined he was striking down his problems.

"Like that will work," said Rachel.

Snipers in Afghanistan. Smash. A teapot exploded with an arrow through the middle.

The sacrifice medal, a silver disk on a red-and-black ribbon, given for death in the line of duty, presented to Frank as if it were something important, something that made everything all right. Thwack. A teacup spun into the woods.

The officer who came to tell him: "Your mother is a hero. Captain Emily Zhang died trying to save her comrades."

Crack. A blue-and-white plate split into pieces.

His grandmother's chastisement: Men do not cry. Especially Zhang men. You will endure, Fai.

"Fai?" a camper asked "What kind a word is Fai?"

"A Chinese word," said a hunter named Selene, "Since Frank is a Chinese," (A/N I'm a Chinese, I'm proud of it! Problem I don't know what Chinese word called Fai; At least I know how to write Frank's family name.)

No one called him Fai except his grandmother. What sort of name is Frank? She would scold. That is not a Chinese name.

"She got that right,"

I'm not Chinese, Frank thought, but he didn't dare say that. His mother had told him years ago: There is no arguingwith Grandmother. It'll only make you sufferworse. She'd been right. And now Frank had no one except his grandmother.

Thud. A fourth arrow hit the fence post and stuck there, quivering.

"Fai," said his grandmother.

Frank turned.

She was clutching a shoebox-sized mahogany chest that Frank had never seen before. With her high-collared black dress and severe bun of gray hair, she looked like a school teacher from the 1800s.

"A very strict one I guess," mumbled Grover remembering Mrs. Dodd's.

She surveyed the carnage: her porcelain in the wagon, the shards of her favorite tea sets scattered over the lawn, Frank's arrows sticking out of the ground, the trees, the fence posts, and one in the head of a smiling garden gnome.

"Ouch," said the campers.

Frank thought she would yell, or hit him with the box. He'd never done anything this bad before. He'd never felt so angry.

Grandmother's face was full of bitterness and disapproval. She looked nothing like Frank's mom. He wondered how his mother had turned out to be so nice always laughing, always gentle. Frank couldn't imagine his mom growing up with Grandmother any more than he could imagine her on the battlefield though the two situations probably weren't that different.

The campers looked at the Ares cabin; they had the same attitude in war as same as in normal days. At least the Athena cabin was different.

He waited for Grandmother to explode. Maybe he'd be grounded and wouldn't have to go to the funeral. He wanted to hurt her for being so mean all the time, for letting his mother go off to war, for scolding him to get over it. All she cared about was her stupid collection.

"Stop this ridiculous behavior," Grandmother said. She didn't sound very irritated. "It is beneath you."

Yeah right,Nico thought.

To Frank's astonishment, she kicked aside one of her favorites teacups.

"Wow,"

"The car will be here soon," she said. "We must talk."

Frank was dumbfounded. He looked more closely at the mahogany box. For a horrible moment, he wondered if it contained his mother's ashes, but that was impossible. Grandmother had told him there would be a military burial.

"If they really are going to burn, they need to do it after the funeral," Nico explained.

Everyone looked at him. "I can be smart!" Nico protested "I knew everything about funerals."

Then why did Grandmother hold the box so gingerly, as if its contents grieved her?

"Come inside," she said. Without waiting to see if he would follow, she turned and marched toward the house.

In the parlor, Frank sat on a velvet sofa, surrounded by vintage family photos, porcelain vases that had been too large for his wagon, and red Chinese calligraphy banners. Frank didn't know what the calligraphy said. He'd never had much interest in learning. He didn't know most of the people in the photographs, either.

Whenever Grandmother started lecturing him about his ancestors how they'd come over from China and prospered in the import/export business, eventually becoming one of the wealthiest Chinese families in Vancouver well, it was boring. Frank was fourth-generation Canadian. He didn't care about China and all these musty antiques. The only Chinese characters he could recognize were his family name: Zhang. Master of bows. That was cool.

"No is not," said the Ares'.

"Yes is it," cried the Artemis' and Apollo's.

Grandmother sat next to him, her posture stiff,

"Wow, she's healthy for an old person," said the Demeter kids, "I bet she ate a lot of healthy food like cereal,"

"Stop it with the cereal; you're just like your mother!" Nico cried.

Green vines wrapped around Nico's legs and arms "What's wrong with our mother!"

"Nothing."

her hands folded over the box.

"Your mother wanted you to have this," she said with reluctance. "She kept it since you were a baby. When she went away to the war, she entrusted it to me. But now she is gone. And soon you will be going, too."

Frank's stomach fluttered. "Going? Where?"

"I am old," Grandmother said, as if that were a surprising announcement. "I have my own appointment with Death soon enough. I cannot teach you the skills you will need, and I cannot keep this burden. If something were to happen to it, I would never forgive myself. You would die."

Frank wasn't sure he'd heard her right. It sounded like she had said his life depended on that box. He wondered why he'd never seen it before. She must have kept it locked in the attic the one room Frank was forbidden to explore. She'd always said she kept her most valuable treasures up there.

The Hermes cabin decided to steal the treasures there, if they had the chance.

She handed the box to him. He opened the lid with trembling fingers. Inside, cushioned in velvet lining, was a terrifying, life altering, incredibly important piece of wood.

The campers started busting with laughter, then they remember that Frank's life depends on the very stick. They stopped laughing.

It looked like driftwood hard and smooth, sculpted into a wavy shape. It was about the size of a TV remote control. The tip was charred. Frank touched the burned end. It still felt warm. The ashes left a black smudge on his finger.

"It's a stick," he said. He couldn't figure out why Grandmother was acting so tense and serious about it.

Her eyes glittered. "Fai, do you know of prophecies? Do you know of the gods?"

"Yep," said the campers as they knew their fate ain't easy.

The questions made him uncomfortable. He thought about Grandmother's silly gold statues of Chinese immortals, (A/N Chinese immortals aren't silly!) her superstitions about putting furniture in certain places and avoiding unlucky numbers. (That too, sort off) Prophecies made him think of fortune cookies, which weren't even Chinese not really but the bullies at school teased him about stupid stuff like that: Confucius say(He's a great a teacher!) all that garbage. Frank had never even been to China. He wanted nothing to do with it. But of course, Grandmother didn't want to hear that.

"A little, Grandmother," he said. "Not much."

"Most would have scoffed at your mother's tale," she said, "But I did not. I know of prophecies and gods. Greek, Roman, Chinese they intertwine in our family. I did not question what she told me about your father."

"Wait ... what?"

"Your father was a god," she said plainly.

"Means you're a demigod!" said the Stoll's.

If Grandmother had had a sense of humor, Frank would have thought she was kidding. But Grandmother never teased. Was she going senile?

"Nope," said the Aphrodite cabin.

"Stop gaping at me!" she snapped. "My mind is not addled. Haven't you ever wondered why your father never came back?"

"They never came back," said some young unclaimed demigods.

"He was " Frank faltered. Losing his mother was painful enough. He didn't want to think about his father, too. "He was in the army, like Mom. He went missing in action. In Iraq."

"Apollo won't lie that he's joining an army! So Frank is an Ares kid," said the Apollo cabin.

"No way, that puny archer is not our brother!" cried the Ares cabin.

"Bah. He was a god. He fell in love with your mother because she was a natural warrior. She was like me strong, brave, good, beautiful."

Strong and brave, Frank could believe. Picturing Grandmother as good or beautiful was more difficult.

"Every lady has her own beauty," said Piper and her siblings expect Drew.

He still suspected she might be losing her marbles, but he asked, "What kind of god?"

"Roman," she said. "Beyond that, I don't know. Your mother wouldn't say, or perhaps she didn't know herself. It is no surprise a god would fall in love with her, given our family. He must have known she was of ancient blood."

"Ancient bloods?" the campers asked.

"Wait we're Chinese. Why would Roman gods want to date Chinese Canadians?"

Grandmother's nostrils flared. "If you bothered to learn the family history, Fai, you might know this. China and Rome are not so different, nor as separate as you might believe. Our family is from Gansu Province, a town once called Li-Jien. And before that as I said, ancient blood. The blood of princes and heroes."

The Athena ran though their history books about China, Roman, Greek and even Egypt.

Frank just stared at her.

She sighed in exasperation. "My words are wasted on this young ox! You will learn the truth when you go to camp. Perhaps your father will claim you. But for now, I must explain the firewood."

She pointed at the big stone fireplace. "Shortly after you were born, a visitor appeared at our hearth. Your mother and I sat here on the couch, just where you and I are sitting. You were a tiny thing, swaddled in a blue blanket, and she cradled you in her arms."

"Awe," said the Aphrodite cabin.

It sounded like a sweet memory, but Grandmother told it in a bitter tone, as if she knew, even then, that Frank would turn into a big lumbering oaf.

"Well, she got that right," said Nico.

"A woman appeared at the fire," she continued. "She was a white woman a gwai poh

"Gwai poh?"asked a camper.

"Strange old women," answered Selene.

"How do you know?"

"My family is Chinese," Selene explain, "And don't ask any silly question!"

"Shut up! You're giving me a headache and I told you not to mention them!" Her stepsister yelled at her.

dressed in blue silk, with a strange cloak like the skin of a goat."

"Juno," Jason mumbled remembering his patron goddess, "I mean Hera,"

"A goat," Frank said numbly.

"Poor goat," Grover cried.

Grandmother scowled. "Yes, clean your ears, Fai Zhang! I'm too old to tell every story twice! The woman with the goatskin was a goddess. I can always tell these things. She smiled at the baby at you and she told your mother, in perfect Mandarin, no less: 'He will close the circle. He will return your family to its roots and bring you great honor.'"

Grandmother snorted. "I do not argue with goddesses, but perhaps this one did not see the future clearly. Whatever the case, she said, 'He will go to camp and restore your reputation there. He will free Thanatos from his icy chains '"

So Thanatos is trapped with icy chains? Nico thought.

"Wait, who?"

"Thanatos," Grandmother said impatiently. "The Greek name for Death. Now may I continue without interruptions? The goddess said, 'The blood of Pylos is strong in this child from his mother's side.

"What is a blood of Pylos?" asked a camper.

"I don't have any blood of Pylos in my list," said Lou.

"You have a list for bloods?" asked Malcolm.

"Yeah, we coordinated them so it's easy to find," Lou explained.

Annabeth cut in, "The blood of Pylos obvious sound like a family bloodline, Pylos is a short form of the guy name. If we can run through some names, maybe we can find out who this Pylos guy is ,"

"I don't care!" said the Hermes cabin.

He will have the Zhang family gift, but he will also have the powers of his father.'"

Suddenly Frank's family history didn't seem so boring. He desperately wanted to ask what it all meant powers, gifts, blood of Pylos. What was this camp, and who was his father? But he didn't want to interrupt Grandmother again. He wanted her to keep talking.

"No power comes without a price, Fai," she said. "Before the goddess disappeared, she pointed at the fire and said, 'He will be the strongest of your clan, and the greatest. But the Fates have decreed he will also be the most vulnerable. His life will burn bright and short. As soon as that piece of tinder is consumed that stick at the edge of the fire your son is destined to die.'"

"Seriously?"

Frank could hardly breathe. He looked at the box in his lap, and the smudge of ash on his finger. The story sounded ridiculous, but suddenly the piece of driftwood seemed more sinister, colder and heavier.

"This this "

"Yes, my thick-headed ox," Grandmother said. "That is the very stick. The goddess disappeared, and I snatched the wood from the fire immediately. We have kept it ever since."

"If it burns up, I die?"

"It is not so strange," Grandmother said. "Roman, Chinese the destinies of men can often be predicted, and sometimes guarded against, at least for a time. The firewood is in your possession now. Keep it close. As long as it is safe, you are safe."

"Unless he was killed before the stick burn up," Nico said.

Frank shook his head. He wanted to protest that this was just a stupid legend. Maybe Grandmother was trying to scare him as some sort of revenge for breaking her porcelain.

But her eyes were defiant. She seemed to be challenging Frank: If you do not believeit, burn it.

Leo light up his finger tips.

"Leo!" all the campers shouted.

Frank closed the box. "If it's so dangerous, why not seal the wood in something that won't burn, like plastic or steel? Why not put it in a safe deposit box?"

"What would happen," Grandmother wondered, "if we coated the stick in another substance. Would you, too, suffocate? I do not know. Your mother would not take the risk. She couldn't bear to part with it, for fear something would go wrong. Banks can be robbed. Buildings can burn down. Strange things conspire when one tries to cheat fate. Your mother thought the stick was only safe in her possession, until she went to war. Then she gave it to me."

Grandmother exhaled sourly. "Emily was foolish, going to war, though I suppose I always knew it was her destiny. She hoped to meet your father again."

"Ares is it!" said the Apollo, "Apollo's won't go to war!"

"Yeah, he only stay at home and play his little tiny harp." Tensed the Ares'

"It is a lyre!" protested the Apollo and the Hermes cabin. "L-y-r-e!"

"She thought she thought he'd be in Afghanistan?"

Grandmother spread her hands, as if this was beyond her understanding. "She went. She died bravely. She thought the family gift would protect her. No doubt that's how she saved those soldiers. But the gift has never kept our family safe. It did not help my father, or his father. It did not help me. And now you have become a man. You must follow the path."

"But what path? What's our gift archery?"

"Dude, you're better off without archery!" Clarisse said.

"Clarisse, you're talking to a book!" Thalia noticed. "And there's nothing wrong with archery!"

"Oh, shut up, little hunter!"

(CLARISSE WAS SENT TO THE INFIRMARY AFTER THIS)

"You and your archery! Foolish boy. Soon you will find out. Tonight, after the funeral, you must go south. Your mother said if she did not come back from combat, Lupa would send messengers. They will escort you to a place where the children of the gods can be trained for their destiny."

Frank felt as if he were being shot with arrows, his heart splitting into porcelain shards. He didn't understand most of what Grandmother said, but one thing was clear: she was kicking him out.

"You'd just let me go?" he asked. "Your last family?"

"Yep,"

Grandmother's mouth quivered. Her eyes looked moist. Frank was shocked to realize she was near tears. She'd lost her husband years ago, then her daughter, and now she was about to send away her only grandson.

"That was hash, a normal people will burst in to tears like this," Piper said.

But she rose from the couch and stood tall, her posture as stiff and correct as ever.

"When you arrive at camp," she instructed, "you must speak to the praetor in private. Tell her your great-grandfather was Shen Lun.

"Who?"

"The guy that cause the earthquake!"

It has been many years since the San Francisco incident. Hopefully they will not kill you for what he did, but you might want to beg forgiveness for his actions."

"This is sounding better and better," Frank mumbled.

"The goddess said you would bring our family full circle." Grandmother's voice had no trace of sympathy. "She chose your path years ago, and it will not be easy. But now it is time for the funeral. We have obligations. Come. The car will be waiting."

The ceremony was a blur: solemn faces, the patter of rain on the graveside awning, the crack of rifles from the honor guard, the casket sinking into the earth.

That night, the wolves came. They howled on the front porch. Frank came out to meet them. He took his travel pack, his warmest clothes, his bow and his quiver. His mother's sacrifice medal was tucked in his pack. The charred stick was wrapped carefully in three layers of cloth in his coat pocket, next to his heart.

His journey south began to the Wolf House in Sonoma, and eventually to Camp Jupiter, where he spoke to Reyna privately as Grandmother had instructed. He begged forgiveness for the great-grandfather he knew nothing about. Reyna let him join the legion. She never did tell him what his great-grandfather had done, but she obviously knew. Frank could tell it was bad.

"Yep" said Jason

"I judge people by their own merits," Reyna had told him.

Yep,Jason thoughtReyna is still her same old self.

"But do not mention the name Shen Lun to anyone else. It must remain our secret, or you'll be treated badly."

Unfortunately, Frank didn't have many merits. His first month at camp was spent knocking over rows of weapons, breaking chariots, and tripping entire cohorts as they marched. His favorite job was caring for Hannibal the elephant, but he'd managed to mess that up, too giving Hannibal indigestion by feeding him peanuts. Who knew elephants could be peanut-intolerant?

"Seriously, peanut-intolerant?" asked Grover.

"I like peanut butter," Tyson said grinning show off his peanut butter cover teeth.

Frank figured Reyna was regretting her decision to let him join.

Every day, he woke up wondering if the stick would somehow catch fire and burn, and he would cease to exist. All of this ran through Frank's head as he walked with Hazel and Percy to the war games. He thought about the stick wrapped inside his coat pocket, and what it meant that Juno had appeared at camp. Was he about to die? He hoped not. He hadn't brought his family any honor yet that was for sure. Maybe Apollo would claim him today and explain his powers and gifts.

"He's not our brother!" shouted the Apollo campers.

"Oh, shut up," the hunters brag in and said.

Once they got out of camp, the Fifth Cohort formed two lines behind their centurions, Dakota and Gwen. They marched north, skirting the edge of the city, and headed to the Field of Mars the largest, flattest part of the valley. The grass was cropped short by all the unicorns, bulls, and homeless fauns that grazed here. The earth was pitted with explosion craters and scarred with trenches from past games. At the north end of the field stood their target. The engineers had built a stone fortress with an iron portcullis, guard towers, scorpion ballistae, water cannons, and no doubt many other nasty surprises for the defenders to use.

"Ouch,"

"They did a good job today," Hazel noted. "That's bad for us."

"Wait," Percy said. "You're telling me that fortress was built today?"

The campers at Camp Half Blood seem very surprise.

Hazel grinned. "Legionnaires are trained to build. If we had to, we could break down the entire camp and rebuild it somewhere else. Take maybe three or four days, but we could do it."

"Wow,"

"Let's not," Percy said. "So you attack a different fort every night?"

"Not every night," Frank said. "We have different training exercises. Sometimes death ball um, which is like paintball, except with you know, poison and acid and fire balls. Sometimes we do chariots and gladiator competitions, sometimes war games."

Hazel pointed at the fort. "Somewhere inside, the First and Second Cohorts are keeping their banners. Our job is to get inside and capture them without getting slaughtered. We do that, we win."

Percy's eyes lit up. "Like capture-the flag. I think I like capture-the-flag."

"Yeah, he remembers," cheered the campers.

Frank laughed. "Yeah, well it's harder than it sounds. We have to get past those scorpions and water cannons on the walls, fight through the inside of the fortress, find the banners, and defeat the guards, all while protecting our own banners and troops from capture. And our cohort is in competition with the other two attacking cohorts. We sort of work together, but not really. The cohort that captures the banners gets all the glory."

"At least we share, the winner get most of the glory," Annabeth mumbled.

Percy stumbled, trying to keep time with the left-right marching rhythm. Frank sympathized. He'd spent his first two weeks falling down.

"So why are we practicing this, anyway?" Percy asked. "Do you guys spend a lot of time laying siege to fortified cities?"

"Teamwork," Hazel said. "Quick thinking. Tactics. Battle skills. You'd be surprised what you can learn in the war games."

"Like who will stab you in the back," Frank said.

"Especially that," Hazel agreed.

They marched to the centre of the Field of Mars and formed ranks. The Third and Fourth Cohorts assembled as far as possible from the Fifth. The centurions for the attacking side gathered for a conference. In the sky above them, Reyna circled on her pegasus, Scipio, ready to play referee.

Half a dozen giant eagles flew in formation behind her prepared for ambulance airlift duty if necessary. The only person not participating in the game was Nico Di Angelo, "Pluto's ambassador," who had climbed an observation tower about a hundred yards from the fort and would be watching with binoculars.

Everyone looked at him. "Those Roman are crazy, no way is I playing," Nico explained.

Jason crossed his arm, his eyes was dangerous as ever,

"No offence," Nico backed up.

Frank propped his pilum against his shield and checked Percy's armor. Every strap was correct. Every piece of armor was properly adjusted.

"At least he improve, he usually had the pieces confused." Annabeth said.

"You did it right," he said in amazement. "Percy, you must've done war games before."

"I don't know. Maybe." The only thing that wasn't regulation was Percy's glowing bronze sword not Imperial gold, and not a gladius.

"It's a pen!" the Hermes cabin joked.

The blade was leaf-shaped, and the writing on the hilt was Greek.

Looking at it made Frank uneasy. Percy frowned. "We can use real weapons, right?"

"Yeah," Frank agreed. "For sure. I've just never seen a sword like that."

"What if I hurt somebody?"

"No dessert for a week!" said the Ares kids.

"We heal them," Frank said. "Or try to. The legion medics are pretty good with ambrosia and nectar, and unicorn draught."

"No one dies," Hazel said. "Well, not usually. And if they do "

Frank imitated the voice of Vitellius: "They're wimps! Back in my day, we died all the time, and we liked it!"

"Yeah," cheered the Ares cabin.

"You're crazy," said the other campers.

Hazel laughed. "Just stay with us, Percy. Chances are we'll get the worst duty and get eliminated early. They'll throw us at the walls first to soften up the defenses. Then the Third and Fourth Cohorts will march in and get the honors, if they can even breach the fort."

Horns blew. Dakota and Gwen walked back from the officers' conference, looking grim.

"All right, here's the plan!" Dakota took a quick swig of Kool-Aid from his travel flask. "They're throwing us at the walls first to soften up the defenses."

The whole cohort groaned.

"I know, I know," Gwen said. "But maybe this time we'll have some luck!"

"Yep," said the Tyche cabin.

Leave it to Gwen to be the optimist. Everybody liked her because she took care of her people and tried to keep their spirits up. She could even control Dakota during his hyperactive bug-juice fits. Still, the campers grumbled and complained. Nobody believed in luck for the Fifth.

"Who said," said the Tyche cabin.

"First line with Dakota," Gwen said. "Lock shields and advance in turtle formation to the main gates. Try to stay in one piece. Draw their fire. Second line "

Gwen turned to Frank's row without much enthusiasm. "You seventeen, from Bobby over, take charge of the elephant and the scaling ladders. Try a flanking attack on the western wall. Maybe we can spread the defenders too thin. Frank, Hazel, Percy well, just do whatever.

"Just do whatever?" Annabeth asked.

"At least is better than set other person as bait," said an Ares camper.

"For the gods' sake, that was years ago!"

Show Percy the ropes. Try to keep him alive." She turned back to the whole cohort. "If anybody gets over the wall first, I'll make sure you get the Mural Crown. Victory for the Fifth!"

The cohort cheered half heartedly and broke ranks.

Percy frowned. "'Do whatever?'"

"Yeah," Hazel sighed. "Big vote of confidence."

"What's the Mural Crown?" he asked.

"Mural Crown is military medal," Jason explained as if he memory started to come back, "It's a big honor that the first soldier to breach an enemy fort,"

"Military medal," Frank said. He'd been forced to memorize all the possible awards. "Big honor for the first soldier to breach an enemy fort. You'll notice nobody in the Fifth is wearing one. Usually we don't even get into the fort because we're burning or drowning or "

He faltered, and looked at Percy. "Water cannons."

"Please don't tell me what he's going to do," Annabeth prayed.

"What will happen?" Piper asked.

"Don't ask,"

"What?" Percy asked.

"The cannons on the walls," Frank said, "they draw water from the aqueduct. There's a pump system heck, I don't know how they work, but they're under a lot of pressure. If you could control them, like you controlled the river "

"Frank!" Hazel beamed. "That's brilliant!"

Percy didn't look so sure. "I don't know how I did that at the river. I'm not sure I can control the cannons from this far away."

"We'll get you closer." Frank pointed to the eastern wall of the fort, where the Fifth Cohort wouldn't be attacking. "That's where the defense will be weakest. They'll never take three kids seriously. I think we can sneak up pretty close before they see us."

"Sneak up how?" Percy asked.

Frank turned to Hazel. "Can you do that thing again?"

"Please don't," prayed Nico.

She punched him in the chest. "You said you wouldn't tell anybody!"

Immediately Frank felt terrible. He'd gotten so caught up in the idea...

Hazel muttered under her breath. "Never mind. It's fine. Percy, he's talking about the trenches. The Field of Mars is riddled with tunnels from over the years. Some are collapsed, or buried deep, but a lot of them are still passable. I'm pretty good at finding them and using them. I can even collapse them if I have to."

"Cool," said Leo.

"Shut up, fire boy,"

"Like you did with the gorgons," Percy said, "to slow them down."

Frank nodded approvingly. "I told you Pluto was cool. He's the god of everything under the earth. Hazel can find caves, tunnels, trapdoors "

"And it was our secret," she grumbled.

Frank felt himself blushing. "Yeah, sorry. But if we can get close "

"And if I can knock out the water cannons " Percy nodded, like he was warming to the idea. "What do we do then?"

Frank checked his quiver. He always stocked up on special arrows. He'd never gotten to use them before, but maybe tonight was the night. Maybe he could finally do something good enough to get Apollo's attention.

"He's not our brother!" shouted the Apollo campers.

"Oh, shut up," 


	11. Chapter 11

LOSING HIS MEMORY WAS BAD IN ENOUGH; right now Jason faced his greatest fear, fighting his sister in Capture the Flag. Thalia had promised that she will kick his butt in Capture the Flag even though Jason was her brother. Which was twice as bad.

Annabeth planed the strategies. "Ok, here's the plan. Although we were beaten by the hunter for many times ,"

"0-67 times," Connor added cheerfully.

Annabeth glared at him, "Connor, you're not helping!" Then she regained her pose and took out the map of the wood, "The hunter had hid their flag at the edge of the forest. Clarisse, lead the Ares and Tyche cabin to the west. Piper, you'll lead your cabin, Iris and the Hebe cabin to the North. Jason, you'll lead my cabin and Nike to the east."

Jason felt stunt, Annabeth just gave him a full leadership of a troop. "Annabeth, why don't you lead?"

Annabeth gave him a sly smile, "Off course, I'm leading. I'll make sure you don't goof up, wait only Percy will goof up, whatever."

Annabeth try to get the counselor attention again, "Hephaestus and the Hecate cabin will set booby traps around the forest. Demeter will go south east and the Apollo will go south west. Nico and Pollux guard the flag at the Zeus's fits. Hypnos you will take care of the holding cell and Nemesis will make sure you will not fall asleep."

The Hypnos' kids groaned and yawned at the same time. The Nemesis cabin grinned in delight, strangely they enjoyed keeping the Hypnos cabin awake at all times,

Annabeth continued, "Go guard the creek P-," Then Jason wondered if Annabeth wanted to say Percy, since he had a big advantage with the water.

"We will deal with it, Annabeth," Travis saved her from embarrassment.

"Alright then,"

Annabeth raised the flag now gleaming with grey. "Let's show those girls! For Camp Half Blood!"

"For Camp Half Blood!" the campers yelled as they marched to the woods.

[Line break!]

After charging for a long time, Jason found the flag. Silver banner was hanging on a lowest branch of a tree. Jason marched right toward it. No guards. This was too easy. Which might be a trap but he was overwhelmed with joy to even care.

"Holy Jupiter, I won," Jason mumbled as he took the flag. Silver light flash though him, suddenly he was pinned on the tree trunk.

"Hi, brother," Thalia walked up to him smiling with another hunter by her side.

"Thalia, sis, can you just "

"Let you go?"

"Yep,"

"No can do," said the other hunter, "We want to keep the record of beating you guys up,"

To Jason and the other hunter stunt, Thaila said "Victoria, let him go,"

"Thalia, are you nuts?" Victoria cried.

"No, I'm not. Now let him go. There's no way he cans out run over defenses."

Victoria hesitated for a while, but she let him go. Grabbing the flag Jason zoomed tried across the woods. He started to regret, and felt better off captured. Arrows flew around him, booby traps almost caught him, girls armed with swords tried to charge towards him. And there's no one to help him.

Jason summoned the power wind, sending him high in the sky; all the arrows flew the opposite direction as the winds blew them away. Jason held on his gladius summoned lightning to shot the girls that blocks him pass. This was too much; Jason could felt his power draining.

In the end he collapsed landing on mud just a one meter from the creek.

"Jason!" someone yelled, her voice was sweet and encouraging.

"Piper?" Jason asked weekly.

"Come on Sparky, you're not lying here and sleep!" Piper commanded lifting Jason up.

"Yes, Ma'am"

Together they walked past the creek and won the game.

[Line break!]

At the campfire, the campers were in a bright mood. For losing 67 times in a row they finally won, all thanks to Jason. The hunters didn't seem to mind, and everyone was happy. The Apollo cabin healed the injuries and Chiron made sure that campers that broke the rules will be punish properly, like washing the toilets or no dessert for a week or maybe they won't get to listen to the book.

Finally, it was time to read the book; Nico walked up to the centre and began to read.

XI Frank

FRANK HAD NEVER FELT SO SURE of anything, which made him nervous. Nothing he planned ever went right. He always managed to break, ruin, burn, sit on, or knock over something important. Yet he knew this strategy would work.

"Well, he got that right," said some of the Athena campers.

Hazel found them a tunnel with no problem. In fact, Frank had a sneaking suspicion she didn't just find tunnels. It was as though tunnels manufactured themselves to suit her needs. Passages that had been filled in years ago suddenly unfilled, changing direction to lead Hazel where she wanted to go.

"No offence, Rachel, but I think Hazel can lead us though the Labyrinth better than you," said Annabeth.

"None taken,"

They crept along by the light of Percy's glowing sword, Riptide.

Above, they heard the sounds of battle kids shouting, Hannibal the elephant bellowing with glee, scorpion bolts exploding, and water cannons firing. The tunnel shook. Dirt rained down on them.

Frank slipped his hand inside his armor. The piece of wood was still safe and secure in his coat pocket, though one good shot from a scorpion might set his lifeline on fire.

Bad Frank, he chided himself. Fire is the "F-word." Don't think about it.

Leo lighted up his finger tips just to heat up his coco, while scaring his half brothers and sisters.

"Leo," they scolded.

"There's an opening just ahead," Hazel announced. "We'll come up ten feet from the east wall."

"How can you tell?" Percy asked.

"I don't know," she said. "But I'm sure."

"Could we tunnel straight under the wall?" Frank wondered.

"He has a point," said Malcolm.

"No," Hazel said. "The engineers were smart. They built the walls on old foundations that go down to bedrock. And don't ask how I know. I just do."

"Well, I thought Percy bearing at sea was cool," said Annabeth. "But this is better!"

Frank stumbled over something and cursed. Percy brought this sword around for more light. The thing Frank had tripped on was gleaming silver.

He crouched down.

"Please don't," Nico prayed.

"Don't touch it!" Hazel said.

Frank's hand stopped a few inches from the chunk of metal. It looked like a giant Hershey's Kiss, about the size of his fist.

"Gods, that's big!" Connor said,

"Yeah, let's ," before Travis could say anything, Nico glared at them and mouthed don't even think about it.

"A Hershey's Kiss? That's delicious!" One of the camper of the Aphrodite cabin exclaimed.

"It's massive," he said. "Silver?"

"Platinum." Hazel sounded scared out of her wits. "It'll go away in a second. Please don't touch it. It's dangerous."

Frank didn't understand how a lump of metal could be dangerous, but he took Hazel seriously. As they watched, the chunk of platinum sank into the ground.

He stared at Hazel. "How did you know?"

In the light of Percy's sword, Hazel looked as ghostly as a Lar. "I'll explain later," she promised.

"Well, she is from the Underworld " Someone muttered, probably Chris.

Another explosion rocked the tunnel, and they forged ahead.

They popped out of a hole just where Hazel had predicted. In front of them, the fort's east wall loomed. Off to their left, Frank could see the main line of the Fifth Cohort advancing in turtle formation, shields forming a shell over their heads and sides. They were trying to reach the main gates, but the defenders above pelted them with rocks and shot flaming bolts from them scorpions, blasting craters around their feet. A water cannon discharged with a jaw-rattling THRUM, and a jet of liquid carved a trench in the dirt right in front of the cohort.

"Ouch," the campers said.

Percy whistled. "That's a lot of pressure, all right."

The Third and Fourth Cohorts weren't even advancing.

"Well they're quite lazy, I guess." said Jason.

They stood back and laughed, watching their "allies" get beat up. The defenders clustered on the wall above the gates, yelling insults at the tortoise formation as it staggered back and forth. War games had deteriorated into "beat up the Fifth."

"When did the War Games changed to that?" Jason looked annoyed.

"Since just now," Leo whistled.

Frank's vision went red with anger. "Let's shake things up." He reached in his quiver and pulled out an arrow heavier than the rest. The iron tip was shaped like the nose cone of a rocket. An ultra thin gold rope trailed from the fletching. Shooting it accurately up the wall would take more force and skill than most archers could manage, but Frank had strong arms and good aim.

"No way," said the Apollo cabin, "Is he going to use that?"

"That arrow is hard to control, it can strangle people to death if not careful," the hunters added.

Maybe Apollo is watching, he thought hopefully.

Before the Apollo kids could say something, the other campers shut them up.

"What does that do?" Percy asked. "Grappling hook?"

"It's called a hydra arrow," Frank said. "Can you knock out the water cannons?"

A defender appeared on the wall above them. "Hey!" he shouted to his buddies. "Check it out! More victims!"

"Percy," Frank said, "now would be good."

More kids came across the battlements to laugh at them. A few ran to the nearest water cannon and swung the barrel toward Frank.

The Hermes children started to bet.

"I bet Frank will drown," Travis said.

"2 drachmas, if Hazel will drown," said another,

"No, Percy will drown," said Connor,

Chris smacked Connor up side of his head, "Percy won't drown. He's the son of the sea god."

Travis added, "Dude, I thought you learnt that when you pushed Percy into the canoe lake years ago!"

"No, the defenders will drown!" said another Hermes kid.

The Tyche cabin threw lucky horse shoes at them.

"Hey," shouted Connor, "What that's for?"

"It's back luck to say someone is dying," answered the counselor. [A/N I'm not sure what other religion thinks but to mine its sort of back luck,]

Percy closed his eyes. He raised his hand.

"Come on, come on," prayed the campers.

Up on the wall, somebody yelled, "Open wide, losers!"

"As if," cursed Annabeth.

KA-BOOM!

"Yeah!" cheered the campers.

The cannon exploded in a starburst of blue, green, and white. Defenders screamed as a watery shock wave flattened them against the battlements. Kids toppled over the walls but were snatched by giant eagles and carried to safety.

"Why weren't we carried to safety when we fell off the Climbing Rock?" Some of the campers asked Chiron.

If the old centaur heard anything, he must have ignored them.

Then the entire eastern wall shuddered as the explosion backed up through the pipelines. One after another, the water cannons on the battlements exploded. The scorpions' fires were doused. Defenders scattered in confusion or were tossed through the air, giving the rescue eagles quite a workout. At the main gates, the Fifth Cohort forgot about their formation. Mystified, they lowered their shields and stared at the chaos.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Fight!" cheered the Ares cabin.

Frank shot his arrow. It streaked upward, carrying its glittering rope. When it reached the top, the metal point fractured into a dozen lines that lashed out and wrapped around anything they could find parts of the wall, a scorpion, a broken water cannon, and a couple of defending campers, who yelped and found themselves slammed against the battlements as anchors.

"Ouch!"

From the main rope, handholds extended at two-foot intervals, making a ladder.

"Go!" Frank said.

Percy grinned. "You first, Frank. This is your party."

"Can't believe Percy let other people to get the glory," complained Annabeth.

"Percy is nice," Tyson said.

Frank hesitated. Then he slung his bow on his back and began to climb. He was halfway up before the defenders recovered their senses enough to sound the alarm.

Frank glanced back at Fifth Cohort's main group. They were staring up at him, dumbfounded.

"What they're waiting for ATTACK!" cried the Ares' camper.

"You are rude!" One of Hebe's children complained.

"Well?" Frank screamed. "Attack!"

Gwen was the first to unfreeze. She grinned and repeated the order. A cheer went up from the battlefield. Hannibal the elephant trumpeted with happiness, but Frank couldn't afford to watch. He clambered to the top of the wall, where three defenders were trying to hack down his rope ladder.

One good thing about being big, clumsy, and clad in metal: Frank was like a heavily armored bowling ball.

You can say that again, thought Nico.

He launched himself at the defenders, and they toppled like pins. Frank got to his feet. He took command of the battlements, sweeping his pilum back and forth and knocking down defenders. Some shot arrows. Some tried to get under his guard with their swords, but Frank felt unstoppable.

"It's like the Achilles' curse! Mega d j vu!" Nico said aloud and found everyone staring at him.

"Uh, I'll just go on with the story "

Then Hazel appeared next to him, swinging her big cavalry sword like she was born for battle.

Percy leaped onto the wall and raised Riptide.

"Fun," he said.

"Why is dying fun?" Piper asked.

"He probably wants to see his Uncle Hades." Annabeth shrugged.

Together they cleared the defenders off the walls. Below them the gates broke. Hannibal barreled into the fort, arrows and rocks bouncing harmlessly off his Kevlar armor.

The Fifth Cohort charged in behind the elephant, and the battle went hand-to-hand.

Finally, from the edge of the Field of Mars, a battle cry went up. The Third and Fourth Cohorts ran to join the fight.

"Are they too late?"Clarisse rolled her eyes.

"A little late," Hazel grumbled.

"We can't let them get the banners," Frank said.

"No," Percy agreed. "Those are ours."

"Don't be so confident, Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth scolded.

"Annabeth, once again, you talked to a book!" Malcolm noticed.

"Can you for once don't remind me?"

"I was afraid that you might !"

"Lose it?" Annabeth demanded.

"I was going to say 'get confused' but yeah,"

"Malcolm, please, just be quite for a few more minutes!"

No more talk was necessary. They moved like a team, as if the three of them had been working together for years. They rushed down the interior steps and into the enemy base.

"Is the chapter finished already?" Malcolm asked with glee. "Uh, yes." Nico looked up from the book.

"Yes!" Malcolm jumped up from his seat "No more listening to Annabeth talking to a book!"

Then he realized he was overreacting and everyone heard every single word he said.

"Malcolm," Annabeth said "I will have a word with you about the arrangement of the books in our cabin."

Lacy and a few others tried to save Malcolm from disaster but it was too late.

A/N: Poor Malcolm and his big mouth. Have fun arranging those books, though.

[Selene: Andro, you can do your evil laugh now!]

[Andro: I'm not evil! Meh, what the heck! Mwhahaha, I need those reviews or else we won't update!]

[Selene: If you review, Malcolm can finish his job faster. P.S.: Andro wants those reviews so that her friends would stop saying she's a geek.]

[Andro: I still don't get why they call me a geek! I bully boys and my own sister! How can I be a geek? I'm not a geek, Selene is a geek!]

[Selene: Calm down, Andro! And I'm not a geek! I'm a Greek! Actually, Malaysian.]

[Andro: Your past life is Greek Wait! what was I going to say? Ah, yes. You spend most of your recess time in the library, you volunteered to be a librarian, you LOVE to use your laptop and smart phone to read fanfics and you start wearing glasses at the age of 8!]

[Selene: Send reviews to calm Andro down. So , she won't blurt my secrets out.]

[Andro: They won't send reviews because they want to know your secrets! You have a crush on !]

[Selene: End of chapter! Goodbye!]

Wow, this is a long A/N!

Review this Chapter

Report Possible Abuse Add Story to Favorites Add Story to Story Alert Add Author to Favorites Add Author to Author Alert Add Story to Community

1. I Percy2. II Percy3. III Percy4. IV Percy5. V Hazel6. VI Hazel7. VII Hazel8. VIII Hazel9. IX Frank10. X Frank11. XI Frank12. XII Frank13. XIII Percy14. XIV Percy15. XV Percy16. XVI Percy17. XVII Hazel18. XVIII Hazel19. XIX Hazel20. XX Hazel21. XXI Frank22. XXII Frank23. XXIII Frank24. XXIV Frank25. XXV Percy26. XXVI Percy27. XXVII Percy28. XXVIII Percy29. XXIX Hazel30. XXX Hazel31. XXXI Hazel32. XXXII Hazel33. XXXIII Frank34. XXXIV Frank35. XXXV Frank36. XXXVI Frank

Privacy . TOS . Ads . Help . Top 


	12. Chapter 12

THE SON OF NEPTUNE

Trembling down from 50 feet from the sky and into the canoe lake was not Leo's idea of fun. It was by far the worst pegasus riding experience ever.

It all started when Nyssa, his bossy half sister said, "Leo, if you want to fight monsters, you should train and not spend all your time building the ship."

Leo tried to protest but Nyssa was really determined. "We will take care of this,"

Leo was worried but he trusted his family. He went to check the schedule, 4.30 p.m. pegasi riding. Pegasi remind him about the flying chariot that he rode when he first came to camp and it didn't turn well.

Most of the pegasi were occupied by the Athena and the Iris cabin. Annabeth was teaching how to ride the pegasi to her younger brother, sisters and Butch's siblings, the Iris cabin counselor was grooming the left over pegasi.

"Hey, Mr. Rainbow. Why don't you set me up with one of these ponies?"

Butch looked at he wanted to slap him in the face but he put on a sly smile and pulled out a pink colored pegasus for him.

"Why is this pegasus pink?" Leo asked.

"Oh, the Stoll's brothers dyed it, just to get on the Thalia's nerves,"

"But isn't the hunters got reindeers or wolves?"

"Yeah, but they got the wrong animals," Butch explained as he pulled the reigns.

"No way am I riding that, how about the black one over there?" said Leo pointing at the black pegasus.

Butch looked uneasy, "I don't think you should, its name is Blackjack, that's Percy's horse."

Leo looked confused "Aren't all the pegasi here for everyone?"

Annabeth walked by to the stable and fed her winged horse while hearing their conversation, "Percy saved Blackjack from the Titians, so he owns it safe and square, nobody ride it without his permission."

"What happen if they do?" Leo asked.

Annabeth crossed her arm and thought for a while, "Not sure because no one dares, but the last one who did that became the Oracle,"

"You mean Rachel?" Leo asked, "If I ride this horse, what will happen to me?"

"If Percy is here, most possible is to make you drown or die."

"And Percy's not here!" Leo said cheerfully and quickly climbed on Blackjack, "Giddy up!"

"Leo, are you crazy?" cried Annabeth.

Just one cue, Blackjack spread his wings and began to fly. Leo circled above the camp for a few times. Leo cried his heart out, "Holy mother, how do you stop this thing! Flying a bronze dragon is so much easier! OH MY GODS!" Blackjack realized this was not his boss and made Leo lost his balanced and sent him tumbling down 50 feet in the air.

All he could think of was "!"

Then the wind stopped, Jason was using the air to support Leo's weight. Leo found himself 20 feet in the air. Leo was relief to have a friend like Jason.

"Jason!" Piper shouted and caused Jason to lose his concentration. And sent Leo crashing down in the lake with a BOOM!

Leo swam up to the surface, spit out water and coughing. "Jason, you're a spat Piper, I glop hate spit you! HELP!

{Line break}

The night at the campfire, Leo was freezing with hypothermia. No amount of heat could fix that. Pollux sat and the centre and began to read.

XII Frank

AFTER THAT, THE BATTLE WAS MAYHEM.

Frank, Percy, and Hazel wadedthrough the enemy, plowing down anyonewho stood in their way. The First and SecondCohorts pride of Camp Jupiter, awell-oiled, highly disciplined war machine fell apart under the assault and the sheer novelty of being on the losing side.

"Well, that was rare," said Jason.

Part of their problem was Percy.

"Nah," said Clarisse "I can beat him up any time,"

Some campers snickered as if saying how well that turned out.

He fought like a demon, whirling through thedefenders' ranks in a completely unorthodoxstyle, rolling under their feet, slashingwith his sword instead of stabbing like aRoman would, whacking campers with the flat of his blade, and generally causing mass panic. Octavian screamed in a shrillvoice maybe ordering the First Cohort tostand their ground, maybe trying to singsoprano

"For a legacy of Apollo, he's a bad singer," Jason added.

but Percy put a stop to it. Hesomersaulted over a line of shields andslammed the butt of his sword into Octavian'shelmet. The centurion collapsed like asock puppet.

"Yeah," cheered Rachel, "See who tell the future better!"

Everyone looked at her in awkward, Rachel sank into her seat.

Frank shot arrows until his quiver was empty, using blunt-tipped missiles that wouldn't kill but left some nasty bruises.

"Tell me about it," mumbled some of the Ares kids remembering when the Hunters and the Apollo cabin joined up and protested by the comment about archers.

He broke his pilum over a defender's head, then reluctantly drew his gladius.

Meanwhile, Hazel climbed onto Hannibal's back. She charged toward the center of the fort, grinning down at her friends. "Let's go, slowpokes!"

Gods of Olympus, she's beautiful, Frank thought.

"Stay away from my sister!" Nico cried.

Everyone looked at him; Nico covered his face as he sank into his seat.

They ran to the center of the base. The inner keep was virtually unguarded. Obviously the defenders never dreamed an assault would get this far. Hannibal busted down the huge doors. Inside, the First and Second Cohort standard-bearers were sitting around a table playing Mythomagic with cards and figurines. The cohort's emblems were propped carelessly against one wall.

"So, I'm not the only demigod playing that game!"

"You mean you still play that game?" Grover raised an eye brow.

"Y No!" Nico protested and threw his hands up. Right on cue, some figurines fell from his jacket's sleeves.

"No, not the Hades figurine!" Nico screamed and picked up one which was covered in mud.

"Yeah, you still play Mythomagic,"

Hazel and Hannibal rode straight into the room, and the standard-bearers fell backward out of their chairs. Hannibal stepped on the table, and game pieces scattered.

"Shame,"

By the time the rest of the cohort caught up with them, Percy and Frank had disarmed the enemies, grabbed the banners, and climbed onto Hannibal's back with Hazel. They marched out of the keep triumphantly with the enemy colors.

The Fifth Cohort formed ranks around them. Together they paraded out of the fort, past stunned enemies and lines of equally mystified allies.

Reyna circled low overhead on her pegasus.

"The game is won!" She sounded as if she were trying not to laugh. "Assemble for honors!"

"I can't believe they won without me!" Jason was surprised.

Slowly the campers regrouped on the Field of Mars. Frank saw plenty of minor injuries some burns, broken bones, black eyes, cuts and gashes, plus a lot of very interesting hairdos from fires and exploding water cannons but nothing that couldn't be fixed.

While reading that, the Aphrodite campers made each other's hair.

He slid off the elephant. His comrades swarmed him, pounding him on the back and complimenting him. Frank wondered if he was dreaming. It was the best night of his life until he saw Gwen.

"Help!" somebody yelled. A couple of campers rushed out of the fortress, carrying a girl on a stretcher. They set her down, and other kids started running over. Even from a distance, Frank could tell it was Gwen. She was in bad shape. She lay on her side on the stretcher with a pilum sticking out of her armor almost like she was holding it between her chest and her arm, but there was too much blood.

Jason could believe what he had heard. "This can't but true, no way, how "

"Who would do such a thing?" Piper said in sympathy.

Frank shook his head in disbelief.

"No, no, no " he muttered as he ran to her side.

The medics barked at everyone to stand back and give her air. The whole legion fell silent as the healer worked trying to get gauze and powdered unicorn horn under Gwen's armor to stop the bleeding, trying to force some nectar into her mouth. Gwen didn't move. Her face was ashen gray.

"She's probably dead," Nico informed. Jason shot him a deadly glare.

The Tyche cabin shouted at Nico "That's bad luck!"

Finally one of the medics looked up at Reyna and shook his head.

For a moment, there was no sound except water from the ruined cannons trickling down the walls of the fort. Hannibal nuzzled Gwen's hair with his trunk.

Reyna surveyed the campers from her pegasus. Her expression was as hard and dark as iron. "There will be an investigation. Whoever did this, you cost the legion a good officer. Honorable death is one thing, but this ... "

Frank wasn't sure what she meant. Then he noticed the marks engraved in the wooden shaft of the pilum: CHT I LEGIO XII F. The weapon belonged to the First Cohort, and the point was sticking out the front of her armor. Gwen had been speared from behind possibly after the game had ended.

"Octavian," Rachel said.

Frank scanned the crowd for Octavian. The centurion was watching with more interest than concern, as if he were examining one of his stupid gutted teddy bears. He didn't have a pilum.

"Why would that stupid octopus kill Gwen?" Leo asked.

"Octopus?" Piper asked.

"Yeah, Octavian sounds like octopus!"

"What about 'octagon'?" Annabeth suggested.

"Maths? Boring!" Leo chided.

"Anyways, maybe Octavian forced her to vote him as praetor but she didn't." Annabeth guess.

"Yeah, maybe he was like 'Vote me as praetor or die! Mwhahaha!'!" Jason said.

"Jason? Is there something with your brain?" Thalia asked.

"No,"

Blood roared in Frank's ears. He wanted to strangle Octavian with his bare hands, but at that moment, Gwen gasped.

Everyone stepped back. Gwen opened her eyes. The color came back to her face.

"She returned from the dead!" Nico gasped.

"Ah, she's a zombie!" Travis cried ironically.

Jason wanted to send a lightning bolt after him.

"She's not a zombie," Nico rolled his eyes "She lives again!"

"You mean she's Frankenstein?" Connor asked.

"Dude, we can call Frank 'Frankenstein'!" Travis suggested.

"I'm totally with you, bro!"

"Wh-what is it?" She blinked. "What's everyone staring at?" She didn't seem to notice the seven-foot harpoon sticking out through her chest.

Behind Frank, a medic whispered, "There's no way. She was dead. She has to be dead."

Gwen tried to sit up, but couldn't. "There was a river, and a man asking for a coin?

"Charon," Annabeth and Grover confirmed their fears.

"Hate him," Nico grumbled "He took a long time to realize Bianca and I are the children of Hades. Completely unacceptable!"

I turned around and the exit door was open. So I just I just left. I don't understand. What's happened?"

"She left by using the Doors of Death!" Nico exclaimed.

"Stop giving spoilers!"

Everyone stared at her in horror. Nobody tried to help.

"Gwen." Frank knelt next to her. "Don't try to get up. Just close your eyes for a second, okay?"

"Why? What "

"Just trust me."

Gwen did what he asked.

Frank grabbed the shaft of the pilum below its tip, but his hands were shaking.

"He's not going to do what I think he's going to do, right?" Will asked.

The wood was slick. "Percy, Hazel help me."

One of the medics realized what he was planning. "Don't!" he said. "You might "

"What?" Hazel snapped. "Make it worse?"

Frank took a deep breath. "Hold her steady. One, two, three!"

He pulled the pilum out from the front. Gwen didn't even wince. The blood stopped quickly.

"Yep, he did what I think he's going to do!" Will confirmed.

Hazel bent down to examine the wound. "It's closing on its own," she said. "I don't know how, but "

"I feel fine," Gwen protested. "What's everyone worried about?"

With Frank and Percy's help, she got to her feet. Frank glowered at Octavian, but the centurion's face was a mask of polite concern.

"Stupid octopus! We hate you!" Leo yelled and everyone looked at him awkwardly.

Later, Frank thought. Deal with him later.

"Gwen," Hazel said gently, "there's no easy way to say this. You were dead. Somehow you came back."

"I what?" She stumbled against Frank. Her hand pressed against the ragged hole in her armor. "How how?"

"Good question." Reyna turned to Nico, who was watching grimly from the edge of the crowd. "Is this some power of Pluto?"

"Pluto never lets people return from the dead." Nico shook his head.

Nico shook his head. "Pluto never lets people return from the dead."

"Wow, d j vu again?" Nico said.

He glanced at Hazel as if warning her to stay quiet. Frank wondered what that was about, but he didn't have time to think about it.

A thunderous voice rolled across the field: Death loses its hold. This is only thebeginning.

Campers drew weapons. Hannibal trumpeted nervously. Scipio reared, almost throwing Reyna.

"I know that voice," Percy said. He didn't sound pleased.

"Great, he remembers a voice but he doesn't remember us!" The campers complained bitterly.

In the midst of the legion, a column of fire blasted into the air.

"Ares!"

"No, Clarisse. He's Mars." Annabeth said "This would be 'fun'."

Heat seared Frank's eyelashes. Campers who had been soaked by the cannons found their clothes instantly steam-dried. Everyone scrambled backward as a huge soldier stepped out of the explosion.

Frank didn't have much hair, but what he did have stood straight up. The soldier was ten feet tall, dressed in Canadian Forces desert camouflage. He radiated confidence and power. His black hair was cut in a flat-topped wedge like Frank's. His face was angular and brutal, marked with old knife scars. His eyes were covered with infrared goggles that glowed from inside. He wore a utility belt with a sidearm, a knife holster, and several grenades. In his hands was an oversized M16 rifle.

"Yay, my favorite god!" Grover snorted half heartedly.

The worst thing was that Frank felt drawn to him. As everyone else stepped back, Frank stepped forward. He realized the soldier was silently willing him to approach.

"Bad,"

Frank desperately wanted to run away and hide, but he couldn't. He took three more steps. Then he sank to one knee.

The other campers followed his example and knelt. Even Reyna dismounted.

"That's good," the soldier said. "Kneeling is good. It's been a long time since I've visited Camp Jupiter."

Frank noticed that one person wasn't kneeling. Percy Jackson, his sword still in hand, was glaring at the giant soldier.

"That's major disrespect!"

"You're Ares," Percy said. "What do you want?"

"You remember Ares and not us?" The campers shouted.

A collective gasp went up from two hundred campers and an elephant. Frank wanted to say something to excuse Percy and placate the god, but he didn't know what. He was afraid the war god would blast his new friend with that extra-large M16.

Instead, the god bared his brilliant white teeth.

"That was new!" Grover said. "That's probably the first time he brushed his teeth and didn't blast someone."

"You've got spunk, demigod," he said. "Ares is my Greek form. But to these followers, to the children of Rome, I am

Mars patron of the empire, divine father of Romulus and Remus."

"We've met," Percy said. "We we had a fight. "

"He had a fight with Mars?" Jason demanded "Did he win?"

"Yes, he did." Annabeth confirmed.

Jason's mouth fell open.

"Jason, if you don't want to be a venue fly trap, please closes your mouth." Thalia rolled her eyes.

The god scratched his chin, as if trying to recall. "I fight a lot of people. But I assure you you've never fought me as Mars. If you had, you'd be dead. Now, kneel, as befits a child of Rome, before you try my patience."

"Please Percy, don't be a seaweed brain." Annabeth prayed.

Around Mars's feet, the ground boiled in a circle of flame.

"Percy," Frank said, "please."

Percy clearly didn't like it, but he knelt.

Mars scanned the crowd. "Romans, lend me your ears!" He laughed a good, hearty bellow, so infectious it almost made Frank smile, though he was still shivering with fear. "I've always wanted to say that. I come from Olympus with a message. Jupiter doesn't like us communicating directly with mortals, especially nowadays, but he has allowed this exception, as you Romans have always been my special people. I'm only permitted to speak for a few minutes, so listen up."

The Hermes cabin covered their ears just to annoy the Ares cabin.

He pointed at Gwen. "This one should be dead, yet she's not. The monsters you fight no longer return to Tartarus when they are slain. Some mortals who died long ago are now walking the earth again."

Was it Frank's imagination, or did the god glare at Nico Di Angelo?

Guilty washed thought Nico face,I'm dead!

"Nico, what did you do?" Annabeth demanded.

"Uh " Nico started and he was saved by Pollux whom continued the story.

"Thanatos has been chained," Mars announced. "The Doors of Death have been forced open, and no one is policing them at least, not impartially. Gaea allows our enemies to pour forth into the world of mortals. Her sons the giants are mustering armies against you armies that you will not be able to kill.

"This is bad-d-d-d," Grover bleated nervously chewing tin can. The campers also couldn't help being nervous and scare.

Unless Death is unleashed to return to his duties, you will be overrun. You must find Thanatos and free him from the giants. Only he can reverse the tide."

Mars looked around, and noticed that everyone was still silently kneeling. "Oh, you can get up now. Any questions?"

Reyna rose uneasily. She approached the god, followed by Octavian, who was bowing and scraping like a champion groveled.

"Oh, come on," complained Jason, "Mars' not even praising you."

"Lord Mars," Reyna said, "we are honored."

"Beyond honored," said Octavian. "So far beyond honored "

"Shut up," muttered Jason.

"Well?" Mars snapped.

"Well," Reyna said, "Thanatos is the god of death, the lieutenant of Pluto?"

"Right," the god said.

"And you're saying that he's been captured by giants."

"Right."

"And therefore people will stop dying?"

"Not all at once," Mars said. "But the barriers between life and death will continue to weaken. Those who know how to take advantage of this will exploit it. Monsters are already harder to dispatch. Soon they will be completely impossible to kill. Some demigods will also be able to find their way back from the Underworld like your friend Centurion Shish kebab."

Gwen winced. "Centurion Shish kebab?"

"Well that was harsh," said Drew.

"Say so yourself," muttered Piper.

"If left unchecked," Mars continued, "even mortals will eventually find it impossible to die. Can you imagine a world in

which no one dies ever?"

Octavian raised his hand. "But, ah, mighty all-powerful Lord Mars,

"Dramatic much," said Rachel.

if we can't die, isn't that a good thing? If we can stay alive indefinitely "

"Don't be foolish, boy!" Mars bellowed. "Endless slaughter with no conclusion? Carnage without any point? Enemies that rise again and again and can never be killed? Is that what you want?"

"Nope,"

"You're the god of war," Percy spoke up. "Don't you want endless carnage?"

"Can't believe kelp head has a point," mumbled Thalia.

Mars's infrared goggles glowed brighter. "Insolent, aren't you? Perhaps I have fought you before. I can understand why I'd want to kill you. I'm the god of Rome, child. I am the god of military might used for a righteous cause. I protect the legions. I am happy to crush my enemies underfoot, but I don't fight without reason. I don't want war without end. You will discover this. You will serve me."

"Not likely," Percy said.

Again, Frank waited for the god to strike him down, but Mars just grinned like they were two old buddies talking trash.

"I order a quest!" the god announced. "You will go north and find Thanatos in the land beyond the gods.

"Where's the land beyond the gods?" Lacy asked.

"Alaska," Annabeth answered without thinking.

You will free him and thwart the plans of the giants. Beware Gaea! Beware her son, the eldest giant!"

Next to Frank, Hazel made a squeaking sound. "The land beyond the gods?"

Mars stared down at her, his grip tightening on his M16. "That's right, Hazel Levesque. You know what I mean. Everyone here remembers the land where the legion lost its honor! Perhaps if the quest succeeds, and you return by the Feast of Fortuna perhaps then your honor will be restored. If you don't succeed, there won't be any camp left to return to. Rome will be overrun, its legacy lost forever. So my advice is: Don't fail."

"Great, we all going to die," Nico said.

Octavian somehow managed to bow even lower. "Um, Lord Mars, just one tiny thing. A quest requires a prophecy, a mystical poem to guide us! We used to get them from the Sibylline books, but now it's up to the augur to glean the will of gods. So if I could just run and get about seventy stuffed animals and possibly a knife "

"HA, I can speak prophecy in just a few seconds!" said Rachel.

"Yeah, only the sprit wanted to," Annabeth added.

"You're the augur?" the god interrupted.

"Y-yes, my lord."

Mars pulled a scroll from his utility belt. "Anyone got a pen?"

The Athena,Hephaestus cabin pulled up theirs pens, while Rachel and the Apollo cabin pulled up pencils.

The legionnaires stared at him.

Mars sighed. "Two hundred Romans, and no one's got a pen? Never mind!"

He slung his M16 onto his back and pulled out a hand grenade. There were many screaming Romans. Then the grenade morphed into a ballpoint pen, and Mars began to write.

Frank looked at Percy with wide eyes.

He mouthed: Can your sword do grenade form?

Percy mouthed back, No. Shut up.

"He gets that a lot," mumbled Annabeth.

"There!" Mars finished writing and threw the scroll at Octavian. "A prophecy. You can add it to your books, engrave it on your floor, whatever."

Octavian read the scroll. "This says, 'Go to Alaska. Find Thanatos and free him. Come back by sundown on June twenty fourth or die.'"

"That's not a prophecy," Rachel said. Suddenly the spirit struck her; Rachel closed her eyes and swooned. Two campers rush forward and caught her; quickly set her the three legged steel in front the hearth. Green mist started to swirl around Rachel's feet. When she open her eyes, they're glowing. Emerald smoke from a shape like python issued from her mouth. The raspy and ancient voice chatted.

"To the north, beyond the gods,

Lies the legion's crown.

Falling from ice,

The son of Neptune shall drown,

And the ghouls' legion will go down"

[A/N I made it up pls don't kill me,]

On the last Rachel collapsed, but her helpers caught her and sent her aside to rest. Nobody talked, everyone remain silent. Cleary no one likes the part about the son of Neptune drowning. Annabeth was the most devastated, son of Neptune drowning clearly mean Percy but Percy can't be drown. Pollux began to read to clear the silent.

"Yes," Mars said. "Is that not clear?"

"Well, my lord usually prophecies are unclear. They're wrapped in riddles. They rhyme, and "

Mars casually popped another grenade off his belt. "Yes?"

"The prophecy is clear!" Octavian announced. "A quest!"

"Good answer." Mars tapped the grenade to his chin. "Now, what else? There was something else. Oh, yes."

He turned to Frank. "C'mere, kid."

No, Frank thought. The burned stick in his coat pocket felt heavier. His legs turned wobbly. A sense of dread settled over him, worse than the day the military officer had come to the door.

He knew what was coming, but he couldn't stop it. He stepped forward against his will.

Mars grinned. "Nice job taking the wall, kid. Who's the ref for this game?"

Reyna raised her hand.

"You see that play, ref?" Mars demanded. "That was my kid.

The Ares children couldn't belief what they were hearing, Frank was their brother? And Mars got down from Olympus just to claim him.

First over the wall, won the game for his team. Unless you're blind, that was an MVP play. You're not blind, are you?"

Reyna looked like she was trying to swallow a mouse. "No, Lord Mars."

"Then make sure he gets the Mural Crown," Mars demanded. "My kid, here!" he yelled at the legion, in case anyone

hadn't heard. Frank wanted to melt into the dirt.

To the Ares kids, this was a huge honor.

"Emily Zhang's son," Mars continued. "She was a good soldier. Good woman. This kid Frank proved his stuff tonight. Happy late birthday, kid. Time you stepped up to a real man's weapon."

He tossed Frank his M16. For a split second Frank though he'd be crushed under the weight of the massive assault rifle, but the gun changed in midair, becoming smaller and thinner. When Frank caught it, the weapon was a spear. It had a shaft of Imperial gold and a strange point like a white bone, flickering with ghostly light.

"The tip is a dragon's tooth," Mars said.

"Dragon tooth can be use to create aspartus," explained Clarisse.

"I see," grumbled Thalia, "Not good with them,"

"You haven't learned to use your mom's talents yet, have you? Well that spear will give you some breathing room until you do. You get three charges out of it, so use it wisely."

Frank didn't understand, but Mars acted like the matter was closed. "Now, my kid Frank Zhang is gonna lead the quest to free Thanatos, unless there are any objections?"

Of course, no one said a word. But many of the campers glared at Frank with envy, jealousy, anger, bitterness.

"You can take two companions," Mars said. "Those are the rules. One of them needs to be this kid." He pointed at Percy. "He's gonna learn some respect for Mars on this trip, or die trying. As for the second, I don't care. Pick whomever you want. Have one of your senate debates. You all are good at those."

The god's image flickered. Lightning crackled across the sky.

"That's my cue," Mars said. "Until next time, Romans. Do not disappoint me!"

The god erupted in flames, and then he was gone.

"Dramatic much?" said Will.

Reyna turned toward Frank. Her expression was part amazement, part nausea, like she'd finally managed to swallow that mouse. She raised her arm in a Roman salute.

"Ave, Frank Zhang, son of Mars."

The whole legion followed her lead, but Frank didn't want their attention anymore. His perfect night had been ruined.

Mars was his father. The god of war was sending him to Alaska. Frank had been handed more than a spear for his birthday. He'd been handed a death sentence.

"It won't be that bad?" asked a Tyche kid to cheer the mood.

The campers shook their heads, you have no idea.


End file.
